Consumer Spending Rolls to Victory in Wonder Again
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Photo: Coglianese Photos/Susie Raisher
Consumer Spending wins the Wonder Again Stakes at Belmont Park
As good as Consumer Spending may have been last year as a stakes-winning filly at 2, trainer Chad Brown sees even brighter horizons for her in 2022.
A daughter of More Than Ready , Klaravich Stables' Consumer Spending punched her ticket to the $700,000 Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1T) by taking charge in the stretch and pulling away to a two-length win June 9 in the $194,000 Wonder Again Stakes (G2T) for 3-year-old fillies, kicking off the 2022 Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Belmont Park.
In the process, she also became the milestone 100th graded stakes winner for her sire More Than Ready , a WinStar stallion.
"She's really come around. She's surprised me with the way she's come around from 2 to 3," Brown said about the 2021 Selima Stakes winner. "You don't know which ones are going to make the jump from 2 to 3 and with her I was on the fence. Was she just a juvenile who got a little ahead of the others or would she move forward."
Her performance Thursday pretty much answered that question as she covered the about 1 1/8-mile distance in 1:50.73 while outkicking Cedar Hill's Myriskyaffair to the wire.
"She's moved forward quite nicely," Brown said after winning the Wonder Again for the fourth time. "I'm proud of my staff for bringing her along during the winter and getting her to this point."
Bred by Forging Oaks Farm, the daughter of the Scat Daddy mare Siempre Mia first served notice of good things to come in 2022 when she began her 3-year-old season with a three-quarters of a length triumph in the Memories of Silver Stakes over Pizza Bianca , the same filly who won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T) and beat Consumer Spending by 1 3/4 lengths in that Nov. 5 matchup.
Though Pizza Bianca is headed to Royal Ascot for the Coronation Stakes (G1) after winning the May 20 Hilltop Stakes at Pimlico Race Course, Brown is content to stay in New York for the opening leg of the Turf Triple with his improving filly.
"I'm not against sending a filly to Ascot if they fit. These are two fillies on completely different paths," Brown said about Consumer Spending and Pizza Bianca. "Obviously one is an accomplished Breeders' Cup winner at a mile and I had eyes on stretching my horse out."
Vergara set the early fractions of :24.53 and :50.12 over yielding turf with Skims and Myriskyaffair chasing. Midway on the turn, Vergara began to retreat and jockey Manny Franco moved Consumer Spending ($2.90), a 2-5 favorite, wide from fourth to sweep to the front and open a 1 1/2-length lead at the eighth pole.
Myriskyaffair, a Verrazano filly trained by Christophe Clement, took second by a neck over Andrew Rosen's Skims, a daughter of Frankel trained by Shug McGaughey.
Consumer Spending was purchased for $200,000 by Northway Bloodstock from the Eaton Sales consignment at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearlings Showcase. She is the second of four foals from Siempre Mia and her second winner and first graded stakes winner.
Siempre Mia has also produced a 2-year-old Empire Maker colt named Baba Voss, who sold for $120,000 to X-Men Racing at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, and a yearling full sister to Consumer Spending who sold for $240,000 to Cavalier Bloodstock at the 2021 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.