Spiced Perfection upsets Show It N Moe It in Evening Jewel Stakes

Unhurried from her rail post position, trainer Brian Koriner’s Spiced Perfection swung three-wide turning for home and overhauled heavily favored Show It N Moe It well inside the sixteenth pole to win Saturday’s $200,000 Evening Jewel Stakes by a hard-fought neck.  Ridden by Joe Talamo, she got seven furlongs in 1:17.08.

A Cal-bred stakes winner four starts back this past August at Del Mar, Spiced Perfection, a 3-year-old California-bred filly by Smiling Tiger out of the Pleasantly Perfect mare Perfect Feat, she was off at 10-1 in a field of eight Golden State Series eligible sophomore fillies and paid $23.60, $6.00 and $3.40.

“We really had a beautiful trip," winning jockey Joe Talamo said. "She broke pretty sharp and our plan was really to kind of follow the favorite around there and it’s quite funny how a plan works out sometimes. Drawing the rail, she has a little speed but Brian [Koriner] didn’t really want to get in a speed dual so the tactic was really to just sit behind the pace. It’s funny how a plan works out. It worked out good for us. At the quarter pole I was able to angle around and she did her thing down the lane. I was pretty confident that she could turn it on for the win this afternoon.”

Owned by Dare to Dream Stable, LLC, Spiced Perfection improved her overall mark to 8-3-3-1 and with the winner’s share of $110,000, she increased her earnings to $227,625.

Show It N Moe It, who was ridden by Mike Smith, had no apparent excuses from the far outside and was second best in a game effort.  Off 2-5, she paid $2.40 and $2.10.

Smiling Tigress, who had to alter course in deep stretch, was third best, finishing a neck in front of Ismelucky.  Ridden by Tyler Baze, Smiling Tigress was off at 7-1 and paid $2.80 to show.

Fractions on the race were 22.24, 45.48 and 1:10.53.