Cinnamon Spice launches comeback in optional-claiming sprint
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Cinnamon Spice could be very nice.
“Hopefully, by year’s end, we’re putting her name in the same sentence as Cassatt and I’m a Chatterbox,” said trainer Larry Jones.
But the first order of business, Jones said, comes Friday at Oaklawn Park, where Cinnamon Spice will attempt to knock out her fourth straight win when she runs in the featured eighth race. She is among seven fillies and mares in a third-level optional $50,000 claiming sprint over six furlongs.
Race 8
KEY CONTENDERS
Cinnamon Spice, by Candy Ride
Last 3 Beyers: 90-81-84
◗ Her streak started in her third career start, with a maiden special weight win at 5 1/2 furlongs on Jan. 4, 2015, at Fair Grounds. Cinnamon Spice proceeded to win an optional $17,500 claiming race at six furlongs at Fair Grounds on Feb. 1, 2015, then won an optional $62,500 claiming race at seven furlongs in her most recent start last April at Keeneland.
“She’s done awfully well for us,” said the Fair Grounds-based Jones, who trains Cinnamon Spice for Fox Hill Farm. “She’s been off 11 months-plus, basically just little, minor issues she wasn’t getting over. We thought it would be a couple of months, and it wound up being the whole summer. She’s been ready to run for a little while, and no races would really go with any conditions, but it was very fortunate one did come up there at Oaklawn. It’s good to get her back to the races.”
Formulator Fact: Jones wins at a 26 percent rate with horses returning from layoffs of six months or more.
◗ Cinnamon Spice, a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Violence, is a candidate to eventually stretch out, said Jones.
“We think longer is going to be better for her,” the trainer said of Cinnamon Spice, a daughter of Candy Ride.
◗ Cinnamon Spice will break from post 4 under Oaklawn’s leading rider, Ricardo Santana Jr.
“She’s got enough speed to get herself right up into the race,” Jones said. “She’s not a front-runner, but she’s never far off the pace.”
Pleasant Tales, by Tale of Ekati
Last 3 Beyers: 13-77-53
◗ The fourth-place finisher in last year’s Mother Goose, she also invades from Fair Grounds.
◗ Friday’s race will be her first since a ninth-place finish in the Grade 1 La Brea on Dec. 26, and the last time she raced in the allowance ranks, she won a conditioned sprint in November at Churchill Downs.
◗ Calvin Borel has the mount for Charles Fipke and trainer Dallas Stewart.