Spelling Again under strong consideration for Groupie Doll Stakes

After her gutsy victory Saturday in Gulfstream Park’s $250,000 Princess Rooney, Seajay Racing’s 5-year-old mare Spelling Again will be under strong consideration for Ellis Park’s Aug. 6 Groupie Doll Stakes.

Brad Cox, who trains Spelling Again, won last year’s Groupie Doll with Call Pat, a $7,500 yearling purchase in 2011 who this year captured Oaklawn Park’s Grade 3 Bayakoa and Grade 2 Azeri Stakes.

By winning the Grade 2 Princess Rooney, Spelling Again earned a fees-paid shot at the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint on Nov. 5 at Santa Anita, along with a $10,000 travel stipend. And the $100,000 Groupie Doll at a mile has been a proven route to the winner’s circle for the seven-furlong Filly & Mare Sprint at Santa Anita.

“The timing is good, and I think she’d like that racetrack,” said the Churchill Downs based Cox, who won three stakes Saturday, including a pair at Evangeline Downs. “Ellis is a good racetrack and most horses get over it really well.”

Groupie Doll, the two-time Breeders’ Cup winner and champion female sprinter for whom the Grade 3 stakes is named, ran in the 2013 running of Ellis’ marquee stakes when it was known as the Gardenia. Coming in off a layoff, Groupie Doll got beat at Ellis Park, but she got the conditioning she needed to move forward to what proved her second straight victory in the Filly & Mare Sprint.

“You take it race by race,” Cox, who expects to have 15-20 horses stabled at Ellis in a couple of weeks, said of the Breeders’ Cup. “But being 5 years old, you look at Wavell Avenue, she won the race last year and got good at the right time. That’s really what it’s all about, this mare getting good at the right time. If she’s good and doing great, we’ll take a shot at Santa Anita.”

Spelling Again was much closer to the early pace in the Princess Rooney than she had been in her prior race at Churchill Downs, when she closed strongly to finish threequarters of a length behind dead-heat winners Diva Express and I’m A Looker in the Grade 3 Winning Colors. Ridden by Luis Saez, Spelling Again made the lead sooner than anticipated, then held off Gulfstream-based Cali Star by a neck while finishing seven furlongs in 1:22. That earned her a career-best 102 BRIS speed figure.

“It can be a little speed-biased down there,” Cox said. “We wanted to get her up and get her in the game, and Luis did a great job. The horse outside us made a little bit of a premature move, I thought, and Luis had to ask her for pretty much a full drive before they turned for home. He did a great job recognizing that horse coming up on the outside and had just enough to hold off Cali Star.”

Spelling Again has won four races — with three wins, including Churchill Downs’ Grade 2 Chilukki last fall, and three seconds in stakes — since being claimed for $50,000 at Santa Anita in April, 2015, after which she was sent East to Cox.

Cox won the Louisiana Legends Day’s $100,000 Soiree with Believe in Bertie and $100,000 Cheval with Exit Credit, both owned by Richard and Bert Klein of Louisville. The trainer also won three stakes in one day earlier this year, coincidentally also with one at Gulfstream and two in Louisiana.

Elsewhere Saturday, Cox was second in Monmouth Park’s Grade 3 Salvator Mile with Allied Air Raid. With his other starters, he had a second at Ellis and a fourth and fifth at Churchill, with Cox staying in Louisville.

“I like to treat my office as my war room,” he said, with a laugh, of having horses running at multiple tracks. “I feel like I’m in a draft room in the NFL. You’re trying to coordinate everything out of your office.”

Campbells get off to quick start with $20 winner

The husband-wife combo of trainer Don Campbell and owner Kim Campbell won their first start of the meet when the 4-year-old filly Virginia Walls captured the fourth race on Saturday’s opening card, a conditioned claiming race. The Campbells have 10 horses stabled at Ellis with Don, while Kim manages their 32-acre Campbell Farm and Training Center 90 miles south in Elkton, Ky., 15 from Clarksville, Tenn.

“Anytime you win it’s exciting, especially since we do this together,” Kim said. “It’s a privilege to be able to go out here and compete and do well.”

Virginia Walls paid $20.60 to win as the longest shot in the race under apprentice Sebastian Saez.

“I wish I would have,” Don said of betting. “I always have bad luck when I bet on my own horses. It was exciting. It’s always nice to win here, and we’re really tickled to see the purses go up.”

The Campbells own all or part of most of their horses, with Don ponying his horses to and from the track, as well as all the legwork. Kim pitches in when she’s at Ellis. They ship into Ellis when the track opens for training in May, with horses cycling in and out of their farm, which features a five-eighths mile track, starting gate, turn-out paddocks, round pens, indoor arena and a pond where horses can “swim.”

The Campbells, who buy their horse feed in bulk from Montgomery Farmers Cooperative’s Stateliness branch, are featured in the July edition of Tennessee Cooperator.

Landeros’ 7 & 7 results in 3-win night on Churchill closer

No one rode more in Kentucky on Saturday than Chris Landeros, who rode the first seven races at Ellis’ opening-day afternoon card, then took a charter plane to Louisville, where he rode seven more on Churchill Downs’ closing-night program. That included three winners at Churchill, topped by the venerable 7-year-old gelding Alsvid taking the Kelly’s Landing for his second stakes of the meet.

Landeros, who had two seconds and two thirds at Ellis, wasn’t complaining nor bragging. Even if he’d want to, veteran Robby Albarado would have squelched that.

Albarado, 43, recalled riding 19 one day last fall when on nine at Kentucky Downs during the day and hopping on a charter to ride 10 that night at Churchill.

“And how old are you? 27?” Albarado said to his younger colleague.

“I didn’t say anything, I just kept going,” Landeros said cheerfully.

Still, Landeros was just as happy not to ride until Sunday’s fourth race. Asked if he got tired Saturday night, he said, “At times. I was blowing. Each horse is different so you have to use a bit more of your body differently… I got through it, got a little bit tired but nothing bad. That’s why I jog on off days and keep fit.”

Landeros married Shelby, the daughter of trainer Ian Wilkes, two days after the Kentucky Derby. Asked if being a newly wed helped or hurt his energy, he said with a laugh, “It gives me a little motivation, that’s for sure. Because I know if I complain about it, my wife will keep me in line. It’s good. I’m in a good position right now.”

Landeros also won Churchill’s third for Steve Hobby on Drop Dead Red and the sixth on the Lynn Whiting-trained Mutation. The jockey might have ridden 15. But because the Ellis races were running behind schedule, he took off the last here in order to make it to Churchill. Also riding at both tracks were Albin Jimenez and Jack Gilligan.

“I made it just in time for Hobby’s horse, so it worked out perfect. Alsvid, that was fun,” Landeros said of the Kelly’s Landing winner, whom he’s ridden in 10 of the gelding’s 15 victories. “Chris Hartman is doing a good job with him. I feel confident on him, and he runs well for me…. The way he’s doing, he’s got to be one of the most promising sprinters in the country right now. I truly believe he’s 10 times better than at this point last year. He’s different, his mentality, the way he’s looking. Cross our fingers, maybe we can get back to the big show.” That being the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint on

Nov. 5 at Santa Anita.

Discussing Ellis’ strong jockey colony, Landeros said, “It’s Churchill on vacation. It’s good. I love riding with these guys. The more competition, the better rider you’re going to be in the end. It makes you ride a better race, makes you ride smarter out there, be aware of your mistakes. You’re only going to get better when you ride with the best. If I’ve got Robby on my inside and Corey Lanerie on my outside and Brian Hernandez in front of me, I know to ride smart. Because these guys are very good. It makes it fun.”

Independence Day Smackdown: Geary playing for chaplaincy

Ellis Park track chaplain Ron Crawford hadn’t heard about Monday’s Ellis Park Independence Day Smackdown. But once told, he was delighted to learn that if track owner Ron Geary wins the celebrity handicapping contest, he’s dedicating the prize of $500 to Crawford’s ministry in the Kentucky Race Track Chaplaincy.

“We could use the $500,” Crawford said with a laugh. “I’m not sure exactly what it’s all about, but I’m just so thankful that Ron Geary chose the chaplaincy to support if he wins. Ron has been great and supportive of the chaplaincy as long as I’ve been here and he’s been here. We thank him so much that he’s come and stood up for our chaplaincy program and he’ll continue to support it.”

The brainchild of Ellis track photographer Kurtis Coady, six noted handicappers — including Geary, the 2011 runner-up in the National Handicapping Championships and who lost first place on a head bob in last race — will face off picking a horse for a $2 win and place bet in every race. The $500 goes to the charity picked by the handicapper with the greatest mythical bankroll at the end of the day. Everyone’s selections will be posted by Monday morning on facebook.com/CoadyPhotography and @CoadyPhoto on Twitter, with standings updated throughout the day.

Other charities potentially benefitting: Aubrey Rose Foundation (Ellis announcer Jimmy McNerney), Kosair Children’s Hospital (Churchill paddock host Joe Kristufek, who makes daily Ellis selections for Brisnet.com), Old Friends (Ellis paddock analyst Megan Devine), Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund (Kentucky Downs’ racing manager C.J. Johnsen), and Race for Education (Horse Racing Radio Network’s Jude Feld).

Source: Ellis Park