Making the Grade: Mor Spirit

This week we take a closer look at Mor Spirit, winner of the $150,000 Robert B. Lewis Stakes (gr. III) on Feb. 6 at Santa Anita Park.

 

Dark Bay or Brown Ridgling

Sire: Eskendereya

Dam: Im a Dixie Girl, by Dixie Union

Owner: Michael L. Peterson

Breeder: Elkstone Group (Pa.)

Trainer: Bob Baffert

 

It's fair to say you can't teach speed. Either a racehorse has natural ability or they don't. Sure, a trainer and jockey can bring out the best in a racehorse, but without natural speed it's akin to swimming upstream. Through five starts, Mor Spirit has demonstrated tremendous natural ability. He's very fast and he's trained by a Hall of Famer, Bob Baffert, who has made a career out of bringing out the best in his horses. Baffert did just that in 2015 with American Pharoah   and he's got another talented one in Mor Spirit. Let's take a closer look at Mor Spirit's potential to be a major factor for the 2016 Triple Crown races.

 

Ability: Mor Spirit has now put together back-to-back graded stakes wins following a victory in the grade I Los Alamitos Futurity to close his 2-year-old season and a win on Feb. 6 in the grade III Robert B. Lewis Stakes. There was some chatter on social media about the Lewis being unimpressive—including being unfairly compared with champion filly Songbird essentially galloping around the track at Santa Anita in a paid workout in the Las Virgenes Stakes—but for the second straight race, I came away excited about this 3-year-old's potential. I thought the field for the Lewis was pretty decent, albeit short with just six runners, and Mor Spirit proved much the best.

 

 

He's now got three triple-digit Equibase Speed Figures. The 108 he earned for the Robert B. Lewis was a new two-point, career-best from the 106 he earned for the Los Alamitos Futurity. He's fast, he finishes strongly (final sixteenth of a mile in just over 6 seconds in the Lewis) and Mor Spirit continues to get better.

 

"He wasn't even blowing after the race. I haven't been able to get him tired in the morning yet," Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens said after the Lewis. "Every time we step forward I hope I can find the bottom... but I don't want to find the bottom of him until it's time. I haven't got close to that yet and that's a good feeling.

 

"He seems to just do just enough for what's in front of him; he likes a target. I think as he faces better horses, he'll only get better."

 

A $650,000 purchase at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton Florida 2-year-olds in training sale, Mor Spirit finished second in he debut before a win in October at Santa Anita. He made his third start in the grade II Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. Sent off as the 2.40-to-1 favorite in the 1 1/16-mile race at Churchill Downs, Mor Spirit finished second by 1 3/4 lengths on a sloppy track to highly regarded Airoforce. He then made amends in the Los Alamitos Futurity and with his Lewis win is very much in striking range of the best of this year's Kentucky Derby hopefuls. 

 

Running style: In five races, Mor Spirit has shown the ability to press the pace and win or to drop back a bit early and make a sustained rally—the tactics of choice in both the Los Alamitos Futurity and Robert B. Lewis Stakes. With a bit of a slower pace in both his first career win and the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, Mor Spirit was closer to the pace. He has plenty of natural speed, which he should be able to use to his advantage, and as he matures and learns his craft, it's probably safe to expect he'll be pretty versatile. 

 

Connections: You'd be hard-pressed to come up with a more accomplished one-two punch when it comes to a trainer-jockey tandem than Hall of Famers Bob Baffert and Gary Stevens. The duo has combined for more than 7,650 career wins, more than $482-million in combined purse earnings and 21 victories in U.S. Triple Crown races—12 for Baffert (four editions of the Kentucky Derby, six Preakness (gr. I) wins and two Belmont victories) and nine for Stevens (three in each classic race). They've teamed up for classic wins with Point Given in the 2001 Preakness and Belmont Stakes and Silver Charm in the 1997 Derby and Preakness.

 

Baffert swept the Triple Crown in 2015 with future Hall of Famer American Pharoah, who became just the 12th Triple Crown winner in U.S. racing history. Stevens' most recent win in the Triple Crown series came aboard Oxbow   in the 2013 Preakness Stakes. Mor Spirit is in very capable hands.

 

Owner Michael Lund Petersen, a founding shareholder in Pandora Jewelry, earned his first graded stakes win as an owner with Mor Spirit. 

 

Pedigree: Mor Spirit is from the second crop of 2010 Wood Memorial Stakes (gr. I) winner Eskendereya, who was the early favorite for that year's Kentucky Derby but missed the Triple Crown with an injury.

 

Mor Spirit is one of six stakes winners and two graded stakes winners—joining grade II winner Isabella Sings—from 131 starters for Eskendereya. It's impossible at this point to make any serious assessment of Eskendereya as a sire with his first runners only 4 years of age and only two crops of foals to reach the racetrack. He was a very talented runner by top sire Giant's Causeway   who could carry his speed 1 1/8 miles, and his offspring's average winning distance (7.35 furlongs) indicates his best runners are following suit.

 

Mor Spirit was bred in Pennsylvania by Elkstone Group out of multiple stakes winner Im a Dixie Girl, by Dixie Union. Im a Dixie Girl was a multiple stakes winner sprinting, and Mor Spirit is one of her five winners from six starters and her first stakes winner.

 

His second dam, Im Out First, by Allen's Prospect, won three stakes races at 1 1/16 miles and another at a mile. She also finished third in a graded stakes race at 1 1/8 miles. In addition to Im a Dixie Girl, Im Out First also produced stakes winner First Ascent.

 

Mor Spirit's third dam, Sequins, was a winner at 1 1/8 miles. In addition to Im Out First, she also produced grade III-placed stakes winner Zenith, the dam of grade I winner Great Hunter. Another daughter named Evening Star is the dam of grade I winner Stellar Wind, the runner-up in the 2015 Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (gr. I) and Eclipse Award-winning champion 3-year-old filly.

 

With plenty of talent, a potentially versatile running style and an appealing pedigree, Mor Spirit is definitely a Derby hopeful to add to your Equibase Virtual Stable to track for the 2016 Triple Crown. To me, he looks like a very legitimate Road to the Kentucky Derby prospect.