Grade 1 winner Next Shares getting a vacation

ARCADIA, Calif. – Next Shares, a winner of two lucrative turf stakes in Kentucky last September and October, has been turned out for the rest of the spring, with the expectation the 6-year-old will return to racing at the end of the summer.

Next Shares was sixth in the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita on March 30 and finished 10th in the Grade 1 Old Forester Turf Classic at Churchill Downs on May 4. Trainer Richard Baltas said Next Shares is at Taylor Made Farms in Kentucky and could return to racing in September.

“He’ll get anywhere from 45 to 60 days off,” Baltas said. “He might be a little bit tired, and I want to give him a freshening. I’d like to get him back for Kentucky Downs.”

Last September, Next Shares won the $250,000 Old Friends Stakes at a mile and 70 yards on turf at Kentucky Downs, a race restricted to horses who had not won a stakes in 2018. Next Shares later won the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile, a $1 million race, at Keeneland in a 23-1 upset last October.

Next Shares won the Grade 2 San Gabriel Stakes at Santa Anita in January. Owned by a partnership that includes Baltas, Next Shares has won 6 of 25 starts and earned $1,548,048.

The Baltas-trained Secret Spice, who won the Grade 1 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita on March 30, is not expected to race again this spring and is a candidate for the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar on July 28. The $300,000 Hirsch Stakes is run at 1 1/16 miles and is part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program, offering a fees-paid berth in the BC Distaff at Santa Anita on Nov. 2.

“The Clement Hirsch is probably the goal right now,” Baltas said. “There is big money back East, but we’ve got money here. The Breeders’ Cup is here. That’s an important reason to stay here.”

Owned by the Little Red Feather Racing partnership, Secret Spice was second in the Grade 1 La Troienne Stakes for fillies and mares at Churchill Downs on May 3. Secret Spice finished a half-length behind She’s a Julie after leading by a length with a furlong remaining.

“We were happy with her performance,” Baltas said. “She had to ship, and I was kind of concerned about that. She’s a little high-strung.”