Spaliday Gets Initial Graded Stakes Win in Sands Point
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Photo: Coglianese Photos/Susie Raisher
Spaliday wins the Sands Point Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack
Chad Brown, at the age of 45, is used to saddling offspring of his best runners.
"When I start being the trainer of the third dam, that's when I'll know it's time to look into retirement," Brown said with a chuckle.
Some sweet fall memories were resurrected in the $200,000 Sands Point Stakes (G2T) as Peter Brant's victorious Spaliday is a daughter of the City Zip mare Dayatthespa , who won the 2014 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1T) for Brown.
"She really doesn't look like her mom," Brown said.
The daughter of More Than Ready also has a ways to go to match her dam's accomplishments on the racetrack but she took a step in the right direction when a perfectly timed move by jockey Manny Franco carried her to a neck victory over Macanga in the Oct. 12 stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Aqueduct Racetrack.
The win was the third in seven career starts—all of them this year—for Spaliday, who will be rested for the remainder of the year after notching her initial graded stakes win. The $253,525 earner was coming off a fourth in the Lake Placid Stakes (G2T) at Saratoga Race Course and a win in the Boiling Spring Stakes at Monmouth Park.
"She's getting to the point where she's put in a lot of miles this year with her races and her works," Brown said about the filly bred by Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings. "I'll talk to Mr. Brant. She's already achieved slightly more than we had hoped for this year with a grade 2 win. This might be a good time to give her a rest."
Depending on how long of a break Spaliday gets, Brown added she could be a candidate for the Pegasus Filly and Mare Turf Invitational Stakes (G2T) in late January 2025 at Gulfstream Park.
Imaginary Stables and Mark Barnhart's Macanga sprinted away to a long lead in the 1 1/8-mile Sands Point, enjoying a 6 1/2-length lead after an opening half-mile in a quick :46.77 on the firm turf.
Franco and Spaliday were seventh and last at that point but on the final turn he shifted her five wide and she surged into contention.
In the stretch, Macanga showed some grit and still enjoyed a 2 1/2-length lead at the eighth pole with Spaliday, who was fifth at that point, mounting the only serious charge from the outside. It looked like the front-runner might hang on until the final strides when Spaliday ($8.30) prevailed by a neck in 1:47.47 for the 1 1/8 miles.
"At the three-eighths pole I was looking to see if she could hit the board because I didn't think she could get there," Brown said. "But she closed really good. I don't know if it was the runner-up feeling her legs late or our filly was finding her best stride. Probably it was a combination of the two."
Macanga, an American Pharoah filly trained by Rick Dutrow Jr., was second by two lengths over Cheyenne Stable's Style Points (Oscar Performance ), the 6-5 favorite trained by Christophe Clement.
"If she had only settled," Dutrow said. "But she showed some determination in hanging on like she did. We're very happy."
Spaliday, who was bought for $310,000 from the Warrendale Sales, agent for Stonestreet Bred & Raised, consignment at the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, is the fifth of six foals from Dayatthespa and her initial graded stakes winner. She also has a yearling colt by American Pharoah who was bought by Naukabena Farms for $60,000 at Keeneland September.