Poster Girl comes into Kathryn Crosby Stakes in top form

DEL MAR, Calif. – While the bumpy 2019 racing season winds down, optimistic fans and horsemen in Southern California look forward to a fresh start at Del Mar.

The autumn meet begins Friday with a sense of hope for some, relief for others. Either way, Del Mar’s four-week Bing Crosby season did not arrive too soon for trainer Bill Spawr.

“Let me just say this – we were the first ones in the door,” Spawr said.

Spawr relocated his entire 26-horse stable from Santa Anita to Del Mar, including five entered opening day. While he was among the first to arrive, a more pressing issue for Spawr concerns the opening-day $75,000 Kathryn Crosby Stakes on Friday – can Poster Girl be first across the wire?

Nine fillies and mares entered the mile turf stakes in which Spawr and Farfellow Farm aim for a quick return with Poster Girl, claimed for $62,500 from a dominating win early last month.

The stakes field includes improved Super Patriot, Golden Gate-based 10-time winner Wicked Old Fashion, potential pacesetters La Sardane and Lostintranzlation, and 2018 disqualified Kathryn Crosby winner Excellent Sunset. Storming Lady, Curlin’s Journey, and Free My Soul also entered.

Spawr and Farfellow Farm, the Kentucky farm owned by Kip and Suzanne Knelman, go back decades. Farfellow breeds and also races, including Spawr-trained Critikola, who produced 2006 Kentucky Oaks winner Lemons Forever, and stakes-winning sprinter Enjoy the Moment, who produced graded winners Sum of the Parts and Rocket Heat.

When the 6-year-old Poster Girl dropped into an allowance/optional $62,500 claiming race, Spawr recommended her to the Knelmans. “Even though [she] was 6 turning 7, she kind of met their criteria,” Spawr said.

Spawr checked out Poster Girl. “She was in great shape, big dapples, she looked so healthy,” Spawr said, adding that her former trainer Matt Chew “did a great job.”

Poster Girl ran to her looks, and crushed the second-level allowance/optional-claiming race by more than three lengths under Tiago Pereira.

Poster Girl has worked very well since. Pereira will ride her back. Spawr had good-natured fun with Pereira when he asked the jockey to work one of his horses a half-mile Oct. 28. Spawr did not tell Pereira who he was working.

Pereira was excited after the work, saying, “Who the hell was that? She feels so good.”

“That’s Poster Girl,” Spawr said.

“I just rode her!” Pereira said.

“We know,” Spawr said, laughing.

Poster Girl enters the Friday stakes with proven form over the Del Mar course and a 100 Beyer last out that tops the field. But the race is far from a slam dunk.

Super Patriot finished third last out in a minor stakes race after being blocked from the five-sixteenths to the eighth pole. She was beaten three lengths. Super Patriot, trained by Richard Baltas, won a pair of allowance turf races in summer at Del Mar.

Wicked Old Fashion, runner-up to a next-out Grade 3 winner last out, is trained by Victor Trujillo. The pace is expected to be set by either La Sardana, Lostintranzlation, or Wicked Old Fashion.