Rail draw no problem for Spiced Perfection in Evening Jewel

ARCADIA, Calif. – When Spiced Perfection drew the rail for Saturday’s $200,000 Evening Jewel Stakes for 3-year-old California-bred fillies at Santa Anita, trainer Brian Koriner feared the worst for a filly with tactical speed.

Koriner and jockey Joe Talamo formed a plan to stalk the pace. The strategy worked to perfection.

Spiced Perfection ($23.60) raced behind the leaders to early stretch and prevailed in a duel with 2-5 Show It N Moe It to win by a neck for her second career stakes win.

“Our plan was to follow the favorite around there,” Talamo said.

“She has a little speed, but we didn’t want to get in a speed duel. It’s funny the way things worked out. It went beautifully.

“I was confident the whole way around.”

Smiling Tigress closed from seventh in a field of eight to finish five lengths behind the winner. Ismelucky finished fourth, followed by Blessed Lady, Wishful, One Fast Broad, and Empress of Lov.

Show It N Moe It was heavily favored on the basis of consecutive wins in allowance races with claiming options earlier this year. She won the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Stakes for California-breds at Del Mar last summer and was third behind Spiced Perfection in the Generous Portion Stakes for Cal-bred 2-year-old fillies at Del Mar last August.

Saturday, Spiced Perfection ran 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:17.08. Blessed Lady and Show It N Moe It disputed a pace of 22.24 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 45.48 for a half-mile, with Spiced Perfection always within a few lengths of the front.

Owned by Dare to Dream Stable, Spiced Perfection has won 3 of 8 starts and earned $277,625. Following the Generous Portion, Spiced Perfection was second to One Fast Broad in consecutive stakes for California-bred 2-year-old fillies – the Golden State Juvenile Fillies at seven furlongs at Del Mar in November and the Soviet Problem Stakes at a mile at Los Alamitos in December.

Spiced Perfection was seventh in an optional claimer on the hillside turf course on Jan. 19, her only start this year. Despite the layoff, Talamo said he saw evidence of her old form in recent works.

“The last couple of works were tremendous,” he said.