LEXINGTON, Ky. – Not to date the man, but it was in 2007 that Todd Pletcher trained his first winner of the Spinster Stakes, Panty Raid. Sixteen years, that’s a pretty long time, and you can measure it through generations of racehorses Panty Raid now is the dam of Proxy, a hopeful for the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Proxy is the sixth named foal from Panty Raid, and on Sunday, Pletcher seeks his sixth Spinster with Nest. Nest probably will be favored over Idiomatic, even though Idiomatic beat Nest by four lengths and a neck in the Personal Ensign six weeks ago at Saratoga. Brad Cox trains Idiomatic and while Cox seemingly has won every major dirt race in America, he never has won the Spinster, a Grade 1, 1 1/8-mile contest for older fillies and mares which is a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Pletcher always seems to have the right horse for this race. He won it with Malathaat last year and in 2020 with Valiance, who broke a string of Pletcher-trained Spinster winners whose names are straight out of a late-adolescent sex comedy: Panty Raid, In Lingerie, Got Lucky. Four-year-old Nest, a Curlin filly owned by Repole Stable and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, is one of those horses with whom the racing public falls deeply, somewhat blindly in love. She came to Keeneland two springs ago and won the Grade 1 Ashland by more than eight lengths, and while second in the Kentucky Oaks, Nest had a much tougher trip than victorious Secret Oath. Her reputation grew when she finished second in the Belmont Stakes, and then came the three races that really iced the cake for the Nest crowd. She crushed Secret Oath by more than 12 lengths in the Coaching Club American Oaks and beat her by four in the Alabama before burying older rivals in the Grade 2 Beldame. No doubt, that was a strong string of races from 3-year-old Nest. But do take into account the Saratoga surface early in the 2022 meet played like a plowed field: Nest ran through it, Secret Oath could not abide it. And with all due respect, competition in the Beldame was nonexistent. Nest went to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff favored at a tick below 8-5 and finished fourth. :: Bet Keeneland with confidence! Get DRF PPs, Picks and more. To be fair, she suffered through a very wide Distaff trip, but Nest’s chance to show what she could do at age 4 didn’t come until July 23, when she beat the top-class mare Clairiere in the Grade 2 Shuvee at Saratoga. “She got sick when she first came back in this year and missed a month of training,” Pletcher said. Connections looked at Keeneland in April, the La Troienne in May, and the Ogden Phipps in June, but Nest wasn’t ready. She also wasn’t ready for what Idiomatic had to offer in the Personal Ensign. Idiomatic set out for the lead from post 1, dictated terms and won in a romp, albeit over a sloppy surface and after controlling a moderate tempo. “Anytime you get a quality filly like that loose on the lead over a wet track your’re concerned,” Pletcher said. “I thought Nest ran well. Figure-wise, it was a move forward from her first start, and we’d been playing catch-up all year.” Seven are entered in the Spinster, the ninth of 10 races Sunday. Sixtythreecaliber and Le Da Vida have had their moments, but they need the top two to take a step back. Bellamore, Misty Veil, and Malloy should all be 25-1 or higher. Idiomatic is the speed of the race again, as she was in the Personal Ensign, but don’t expect Irad Ortiz Jr. on Nest to let Florent Geroux coast on the lead with Idiomatic. “I think if we need to, we can stay within striking distance,” said Pletcher. They need to. Idiomatic, a long train of a 4-year-old filly, came out of nowhere this summer to rise to the toward the top of the division. A Juddmonte homebred by Curlin, Idiomatic was too big and leggy, had too many moving parts, to be a racehorse as a 2-year-old. She didn’t come to the Cox barn until late in her 2-year-old season, made two moderately encouraging starts during spring 2022, then suffered a setback and didn’t race again until January at Turfway Park. Idiomatic won a couple of allowance races over the Tapeta track at Turfway and landed the Latonia Stakes there. Cox believed the filly could run to form on dirt and gave her a chance in the Ruffian on May 6 at Belmont Park, where Idiomatic was a well-beaten second. The Ruffian, though, is a one-turn race and Idiomatic needs two for her best. Back routing in the Shawnee Stakes at Churchill Downs, Idiomatic beat a solid group by open lengths. “The way she won that race, I thought she could win a Grade 1,” Cox said. Idiomatic almost fell on her face at the start of the July 8 Delaware Handicap but won anyway despite being taken out of her front-running game. She made short work of the Personal Ensign – and just might be a better horse than Nest at the moment. Might be. But Todd Pletcher trains Nest. Panty Raid and the others are somewhere out in a field. Pletcher still is winning Spinsters. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.