Spendarella Aims for More Magic in Distaff Turf Mile

After registering clear victories in her four North American starts last year, Spendarella  will try to build on that success when she launches her second season of racing May 6 in the $500,000 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile Stakes (G2T).

The start will be the first race for Spendarella since the daughter of Karakontie   closed her 2022 campaign with a 4 1/2-length victory in the Del Mar Oaks (G1T). In making her career debut as a 3-year-old in February 2022, Spendarella won a maiden special weight race and the Herecomesthebride Stakes (G3T) at Gulfstream Park, the Appalachian Stakes (G2T) at Keeneland, and then earned her first grade 1 win at Del Mar.

That sequence left fans wanting more. Even Spendarella's lone loss was memorable as the Gainesway Stable standout shipped across the Atlantic for a start at Royal Ascot, where she finished second to Inspiral  in the Coronation Stakes (G1).

Spendarella was rested after the Del Mar start and had surgery to remove a bone chip. Trainer Graham Motion considered a return in the Jenny Wiley Stakes (G1T) April 15 at Keeneland but ultimately decided a bit more controlled work would benefit the 4-year-old filly. He gradually brought her back with breezes on the forgiving synthetic surface at Fair Hill, where she has breezed four times since April 8—earning the bullet in three of those efforts.

"It's very exciting to have her back and she's been preparing well," Motion said. "She's a special filly."

As usual for a top race in the turf filly and mare division, Chad Brown will send out several talented runners. The multiple Eclipse Award-winning trainer has entered a trio of grade 2 winners led by Speak of the Devil , who rallied from sixth in this race a year ago to post a 2 3/4-length victory. Campaigned by Peter Brant, the 6-year-old daughter of Wootton Bassett  was the highweighted older mare in France in 2021.

Speak of the Devil will be making her second start of 2023 after opening the season with a fifth-place finish in the Honey Fox Stakes (G3T) March 4 at Gulfstream Park. In April she breezed three times at Keeneland and once at Churchill ahead of Saturday's defense of her 2022 win.

Brown also will send out Head of Plains Partners' homebred Fluffy Socks , who won the 2021 Sands Point Stakes (G2T) and spent 2022 knocking on the door as she placed in three graded stakes; and Bradley Thoroughbreds, Belmar Racing and Breeding, Cambron Equine, and Team Hanley's Haughty , who won last year's Lake Placid Stakes (G2T) at Saratoga Race Course. Like Spendarella, Haughty was bred by Gainesway. 

Wakanaka , who finished third in last year's Churchill Distaff Turf Mile, will make her first start since an off-the-board finish in the Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf Invitational Stakes (G3T) in late January at Gulfstream. Bill Mott trains the grade 2 winner for Team Valor International and Gary Barber.