Hawthorne: No Spin far from lock on class drop in Royal Glint

Tom Keyser

No Spin will drop from the Grade 1 Champagne to Saturday's $60,000 Royal Glint Stakes at Hawthorne.

STICKNEY, Ill. – No Spin, suffice it to say, will be taking a serious class drop when he starts Saturday in the $60,000 Royal Glint Stakes, a 2-year-old grass race at Hawthorne.

No Spin’s most recent start came in the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes on Oct. 8 at Belmont, and the Champagne winner, Union Rags, is a near-certain favorite next weekend in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. While No Spin, a very troubled fourth in the Arlington-Washington Futurity, proved no match for the likes of Union Rags, finishing sixth by almost 16 lengths, bettors are likely to accord him a far better chance Saturday at Hawthorne. But No Spin is no cinch.

The Royal Glint, carded at one mile on grass, drew an overflow field of 11, and there are some decent-looking prospects in the race, horses that already have shown they can run on turf and around two turns, two things No Spin hasn’t attempted. By BC Juvenile winner Johannesburg and out of a mare by General Meeting, No Spin does have one sibling who preferred routes (Almooriq) and another who won twice on turf (Prado Dash), but at a relatively short price, he seems worth standing against Saturday.

Scatter a Star has never left Chicago and started for a $40,000 maiden-claiming tag over the summer at Arlington, but his Oct. 8 turf allowance win at Hawthorne was eye-catching. Last of eight entering the far turn, Scatter a Star finished powerfully to win going away while running his final quarter-mile in just more than 23 seconds. The performance was flashy and smooth and validated a similarly sharp maiden win two races ago at Arlington. Trained by Mike Reavis, Scatter a Star is part of an entry with Devil in Disguise, who looks like the dirt-oriented part of the coupling.

Southern Parkway, in from Kentucky for trainer Rusty Arnold, finished second to the decent colt Monastic in an Arlington turf maiden before breaking through Oct. 9 in a Keeneland maiden special weight. He appears to be coming forward and, like Scatter a Star, has a solid finishing kick.

Ville has been idle since fading off the pace to finish sixth in the Sept. 10 Arlington-Washington Futurity, but twice finished second before winning a maiden race while facing some of the better 2-year-olds (Twelve Hundred, Take Charge Indy, Shared Property, and even No Spin) at Arlington this past summer. Ville was produced by a Darn that Alarm mare and may find his first race around two turns and on grass a suitable spot.