Impressive recent winners Hot Peppers, Spirit Wind on collision course at Tampa
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The up-and-coming Florida-bred 3-year-old fillies Hot Peppers and Spirit Wind turned in big performances here last week and could be on a collision course to meet in the $110,000 Sophomore Fillies at Tampa Bay Downs on March 27.
Hot Peppers survived a stretch-long duel with Mouffy before registering a gut-wrenching head victory in Sunday’s 10th race, a six-furlong allowance sprint for 3-year-old fillies. The win was the third in a row for Hot Peppers, a Florida-bred daughter of Khozan who came into the race off a couple of one-sided victories for owner Michael Dubb and trainer Ron Spatz. She earned a career best 85 Beyer Speed Figure Sunday.
“She sure got a gut check yesterday, didn’t she?” Spatz said on Monday. “That was a hard race for her but she came out of it well. It was also a big jump forward from a Beyer standpoint. The race at Tampa is the next logical move. It’s over $100,000 for Florida-breds, although from the looks of things it’s not going to come up an easy spot. And seven furlongs is a question for her as well. But we’ve got to give her the chance.”
Spirit Wind also received an 85 Beyer for her eye-catching 15 1/2-length maiden win going six furlongs on Friday while making just her second start and first since May of 2021. The Jacks or Better Farm homebred by Bahamian Squall is trained by Ralph Nicks.
“She’s always shown lot of talent and was going to be our Sire Series horse last year but had bleeding issues, so we just decided to wait until she could come back as a 3-year-old and run on Lasix,” Nicks explained when asked about the long break between starts. “The stakes in Tampa will likely be next since she can race on Lasix over there and not in the stakes race here at Gulfstream.”