Grade 1 Winner Spiced Perfection Heads Go For Wand

After taking on some of the best distaff sprinters throughout the year, Spiced Perfection will end 2019 on a longer, yet easier, note.

Racing in New York for the first time, the 4-year-old Smiling Tiger  filly heads a field of six as a 3-5 morning-line favorite in the $250,000 Go For Wand Handicap (G3), a mile test for fillies and mares on the Dec. 7 card at Aqueduct Racetrack.

In her previous start, the multiple grade 1 winner finished fourth in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1), winding up nine lengths behind the victorious Covfefe. 

She was then entered in the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale but was a $1.35 million RNA.

Trained by Peter Miller and owned by Pantofel Stable, Wachtel Stable, and Peter Deutsch, Spiced Perfection has raced at seven furlongs in six of her past seven starts, with the other coming at six furlongs. In those races, the talented California-bred has a trio of wins: the Madison Stakes (G1), La Brea Stakes (G1), and Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes (G2).

A daughter of the Pleasantly Perfect mare Perfect Feat bred by Premier Thoroughbreds, Spiced Perfection was bought by Dare to Dream Stables for $50,000 from the Checkmate Thoroughbreds consignment at the 2017 Barretts March Selected 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale. The $1,076,905 earner was originally bought by John Brocklebank, agent, for $6,500 from the Woodbridge Farm consignment at the 2016 Barretts October Yearling and HRA Sale.

The winner of eight of 19 starts will carry top weight of 124 pounds and give away six to 10 pounds to her five rivals.

Like Spiced Perfection, Another Broad went through the sales ring at the Keeneland November sale, but she was bought by Farfellows Farms for $340,000 from the ELiTE consignment.

At the time, trainer Todd Pletcher thought the Maryland-bred's racing days were over, but her new owner, Kip Knelman, decided to keep her in training and sent her back to Pletcher.

"She changed hands at the sale, but the new owner sent her back to us and she has done very well since then," Pletcher said. 

A 4-year-old daughter of Include , Another Broad was second in the 1 1/8-mile Turnback the Alarm Handicap (G3) in her most recent start. Five of her past six starts were at nine furlongs, and Pletcher would have preferred to keep her at two turns. But with no options at that distance, he settled on the Go For Wand.

"I think she's at her best at two turns going a mile and an eighth, but there's no option for that here now, so we'll run here with an option toward the (1 1/8-mile Ladies Handicap Jan. 19 at Aqueduct) down the road."

Rounding out the field are Pumpkin Pie stakes winner Saguaro Row; Our Super Nova, who captured a division of the New York Stallion Series; Safely Kept Stakes winner Needs Supervision; and Espresso Shot.

Field of Seven in 'Winter' Highweight

The way things are going, the Fall Highweight Handicap (G3) may be in search of a new name soon.

"Before long, it's going to be the Winter Highweight Handicap," trainer Mark Hennig said.

The unusual stakes, in which highweights often tote more than 130 pounds, was originally scheduled to be contested Nov. 28 at Aqueduct with a field of nine, but the card was canceled a day earlier due to the likelihood of inclement weather.

Rescheduled for Dec. 1, a field of eight with one newcomer was drawn, but that card was cut short because of the weather, and the Fall Highweight was delayed for a second time.

So the New York Racing Association will take a third swing at running the Fall Highweight Dec. 8 with a field of seven in place.

Courtlandt Farms' Strike Power, a grade 3-winning son of Speightstown  trained by Hennig, was one of six horses entered all three times, and Hennig said the postponements and 10-day delay have been problematic.

"I've gone from Johnny Velazquez (as a jockey) on Thanksgiving Day to Javier Castellano on Sunday, and now on this Sunday we'll have Manny Franco, so that's one inconvenience," the trainer said. "With the weather, we're also far behind his last breeze going into the race (three furlongs in a bullet :36.55 Nov. 21). I couldn't get a good track to work him on during the early part of the week, so we have to go with what he got before."

Strike Power, who was second in the True North Stakes (G2) three starts ago, and Sagamore Farm's Recruiting Ready, the 132-pound highweight trained by Stanley Hough who was third in the True North, head the returnees from the original entries.

Relatively new to the mix is Everything's Cricket Racing and Lawrence Goichman's Nicodemus, who was not entered for the Nov. 28 race but worked six furlongs Nov. 27 and was among the field for the Dec. 1 attempt. The 4-year-old son of Candy Ride  was entered by trainer Linda Rice in both the $750,000 Cigar Mile Handicap (G1) Saturday and Sunday's Fall Highweight, giving the connections some options for the colt's next start.

If it were up to Hennig, given the difficulties in training at this time of year, only the original entrants for the Thanksgiving Day race would be allowed in Sunday's race.

"Sometimes situations like this allows time for other horses to come in who weren't originally entered. Those of us who support the program from day one are stuck with the hand we were dealt, while others have works closer to the race," Hennig said. "In the climate we're in, you can't blame people for erring on the side of caution with cancellations, but it's a shame for people who worked so hard to get the horses over there and then they cancel midcard."