Ruffian Show Finisher Spelling Again Spins Around Quickly

Seajay Racing LLC’s Spelling Again will be spinning back in two weeks following a third-place effort in the May 14 Ruffian (GII) at Belmont Park in Saturday’s $100,000 Winning Colors (GIII),where she is the 3-1 second choice on odds maker Mike Battaglia’s morning line against six others.

“The race is back a little quick but she’s training well, she likes the track and it looks like a great spot,” trainer Brad Cox said. “Anytime you run back in two weeks it can be a concern, but if she wasn’t doing well we would’ve never entered her in the first place. We’re pretty happy with the way that she came out of her last race and what we’ve seen from her training since she shipped back from Belmont. She’s training well, galloping well and we’ll see what happens.” 

The Pennsylvania-bred daughter of Awesome Again will be looking for her first victory since winning the Chilukki (GII) last fall at Churchill Downs. She is a perfect 2-for-2 on the Churchill main track.

“Her last three races, she hasn’t won a race but the positive you can take is that we’ve been beaten by horses like Cavorting, Taris and Sheer Drama – three solid, quality Grade I mares,” Cox said. “Not that we’re taking a drop in class because the Winning Colors is a tough race, but it’s probably not quite as strong as the Madison or the Ruffian or even the Go For Wand last fall. But we’re excited about her and we think she’ll show up and run well. She’s two-for-two at Churchill and she bounced out of the Ruffian in good order; we shipped her back and hasn’t missed a beat.

“I think she’s a little better. She can be a little tough to deal with training-wise. She’s a bit of a quirky filly. Sometimes she doesn’t like to start training until she wants to start training, not when the rider is ready to start, but that’s about it.”

Cox also discussed plans for his 3-year-old Dazzling Gem, who ran third in Pimlico’s Sir Barton Stakes on the Preakness undercard.

“We’re going to look at the ($100,000) Matt Winn (June 18), (GIII, $250,000) Iowa Derby (June 30) and the ($500,000) Ohio Derby (June 25),” Cox said. “He came out of his race at Pimlico in good shape and we’re happy with the way he looks and we’ll just go forward with him.”