Undefeated Brightwork Has Experience, Will Travel

Undefeated Spinaway Stakes (G1) winner Brightwork  has put together a record that resembles top juvenile campaigns of a few years back as her four wins started with a debut score in a maiden special weight race way back in April at the Keeneland spring meet. 

After that debut in Lexington, the daughter of Outwork   then won her stakes debut in the Debutante Stakes at Ellis Park in July before posting a five-length score in the Adirondack Stakes (G3) in her graded stakes debut Aug. 6 at Saratoga Race Course. That set her up well for the seven-furlong Spinaway Sept. 3 at Saratoga, where she proved to be resolute in the stretch, holding off a determined Ways and Means  by a half-length.

Campaigned by WSS Racing and trained by John Ortiz, who claimed his first grade 1 win in the Spinaway, Brightwork's four wins have come at three different tracks and she's stepped up in class each race while also taking on slightly longer tests each time, going from 4 1/2 furlongs in her debut, to six furlongs in the Debutante, 6 1/2 furlongs in the Adirondack, and to seven furlongs Sunday. 

In line with the recent trend of starting well-regarded 2-year-olds later in the year, six of Brightwork's rivals entered the gate Sunday off a single start, including Ways and Means who rolled to a 12 3/4-length score in a six-furlong maiden special weight race at Saratoga on the same day as the Adirondack. That effort caught the eyes of bettors who would make Ways and Means the 2-5 favorite in the Spinaway while Brightwork was sent off the 3-1 second choice.

But in the Spinaway, experience would win out as Brightwork appeared fully aware of what it would take for victory, holding off the all-out but less experienced Ways and Means. For Brightwork the steady work this season has helped her develop one step at a time.

"Training is training at the end of the day. If you got talent, you got talent, and the filly has the talent," Ortiz said after the win. "She's making me look good right now. She's the athlete, I'm the coach. I gave her some words of encouragement earlier today, we said a little prayer together, and we're here right now. We're just enjoying the ride. They've got their own personalities and I just go with it."

As for her path to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) Nov. 3 at Santa Anita Park, Ortiz said they will consider training up to the Breeders' Cup or possibly one more start, with the Alcibiades Stakes (G1) Oct. 6 at Keeneland or the Chandelier Stakes (G2) Oct. 7 at Santa Anita as possibilities for her first try at two turns.

"We'll let her dictate where she wants to go," Ortiz said. "You have to think about shipping to California and she has to acclimate to it. It's a difficult trip to California but it's been done before and this is where we're going."