Leave No Trace Takes Home Spinaway Win in 14-1 Upset
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Photo: Coglianese Photos
Leave No Trace wins the Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga Race Course
Trainer Phil Serpe was uncertain of what to expect from his 2-year-old filly Leave No Trace in the $300,000 Spinaway Stakes (G1) Sept. 4 at Saratoga Race Course.
The betting public also had its doubts, sending WellSpring Stables' daughter of Outwork off at 14-1 odds.
"You just don't know who these fillies are yet," Serpe said.
People found out a considerable amount about Leave No Trace on the penultimate day of the Saratoga meet as she motored to a 1 1/2-length victory over Wonder Wheel and eight other 2-year-old fillies to provide Serpe with his first grade 1 win in 29 years.
"It's great," said Serpe, whose last grade 1 victory came courtesy of Birdonthewire in the 1993 Vosburgh Stakes. "I am really happy for the people who own this horse. They are great people. They're deserving. It's a great deal all around for everybody."
Dr. Robert Vukovich and his wife, Laura, operate WellSpring Stables, and it was their team that astutely picked out Leave No Trace, a daughter of the Good Journey mare Tanquerray, for $40,000 from the Vinery Sales consignment at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling Sale.
"All the credit goes to the owner and his staff," Serpe said of the purchase. "They do a great job. They scope these horses out. Two years ago, they found Safe Conduct , who won the Queen's Plate last year. They found this filly and they found Bank On Anna , who won a stakes (the Aug. 12 Union Avenue Handicap). Whatever their theories are for buying these horses, they are doing a good job."
After the purchase, Serpe turned Leave No Trace into a stakes winner following an impressive 2 3/4-length debut win July 20 at the Spa in a maiden race restricted to horses who sold or were RNA'd for $50,000 or less at their last sale.
"We really don't wind up our 2-year-old first-time starters at all," Serpe said. "So, when she won that day, she was impressive, and that shows something in our barn."
Given that early success, Serpe didn't hesitate to target the seven-furlong Spinaway, where he found six fillies with one victory, just like Leave No Trace, but three coming off stakes wins.
Leave No Trace left no doubt as she won the Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga Race Course
"She was training great. She worked 59 and change for fun, and you have to go. Like they say, you have to make hay when the sun shines. You take a shot. That's what racing is. That's what this whole thing is about."
One of those stakes winners set the pace in the Spinaway. Adirondack Stakes (G3) winner Naughty Gal led by a length through fractions of :22.84 and :46.66 in a bid to give 87-year-old Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas a third victory on the card.
Meanwhile, Jose Lezcano and Leave No Trace pressed the pace from second and forged to the front as Naughty Gal tired and retreated to ninth. D J Stable's Wonder Wheel, the Debutante Stakes winner and 7-5 favorite, and debut winner Kaling took up the chase in the stretch but were unable to gain ground in the final furlong.
Leave No Trace ($31.60) was timed in 1:24.03 for the seven furlongs.
"I'm not surprised the way she did it," Lezcano said. "She traveled like a good horse and she is."
Wonder Wheel, an Into Mischief filly trained by Mark Casse, was second by 1 1/4 lengths over Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' Kaling, a daughter of Practical Joke trained by Todd Pletcher.
"Obviously, I would have liked to have won, but I thought she ran real well," Casse said. "She got hung out pretty wide (from post nine). She didn't change leads until about the sixteenth pole. I thought maybe when she changed, she'd kick on again, and she did."
Casse said Wonder Wheel would be pointed to the Oct. 7 Darley Alcibiades Stakes (G1) at Keeneland, home of the Breeders' Cup Nov. 4-5.
While Serpe was undecided about Leave No Trace's next start, if she heads to the $2 million NetJets Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1), she picked up some cash to make it easier on her owner's checkbook. With the Spinaway serving as a Breeders' Cup Dirt Dozen race, Leave Me Now earned a $30,000 credit toward a start in the Juvenile Fillies. Wonder Wheel received a $15,000 credit and Kaling $7,500.
The first stakes winner out of Tanquerray, Leave No Trace is her third foal and second winner. She also has a yearling full sister to the Spinaway winner and a 2022 Notional colt.