Spice Rack drops, stays on grass

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Spice Rack, who is coming off a wake-up effort in her first start on the grass, will take a class drop in Thursday's Woodbine feature, a seven-furlong turf allowance for fillies and mares.

Spice Rack showed promise in her debut at 2, when she dusted $50,000 maidens while receiving a Beyer Figure of 81. She got the winter off after coming up empty in her only other 2-year-old outing in the restricted South Ocean Stakes.

Spice Rack was a well-beaten seventh behind the likes of Touchnow and Tricky Little Girl over a sloppy track when she came off the sidelines in a seven-furlong allowance April 30. Trainer Barb Minshall put her on the grass for her last race, a one-mile allowance, and came away pleased when the filly finished third at 47-1.

Thursday, Spice Rack meets nonwinners-of-two-lifetime Ontario-sired runners, and she should be among the favorites under regular rider Richard Dos Ramos.

Rounding out the field for Thursday's eighth race are Josey Hill, Sunadir, Intoyourblues, Smart Serve, Tetherette, Flashy Anna, Step Aside Please, Bold Little Lass, Tuff Broo, Executive Affair, Oriental Doll, Lola Darling, and Bellini Martini. Stuck on the also-eligible list are Pinwinee Whiskey and In My Time.

Josey Hill was a handy winner of her only outing in a one-mile maiden special weight race on the grass in September. A daughter of Archers Bay, Josey Hill has been working regularly over the turf training course for trainer Mark Casse, who has been winning at a solid 19-percent clip with his extended layoff runners.

Smart Serve, who captured the minor Juvenile Stakes at Fort Erie in 2003, is experimenting over an unfamiliar surface. By Canyon Creek, Smart Serve is a half-sister to turf specialist Bubbi Prize, who placed in the Adena Springs Matchmaker and La Prevoyante stakes.

Smart Serve is coupled in the Jim Day-trained entry with In My Time, who was recently a troubled fifth in a $40,000 conditioned claimer on grass.

Executive Affair won her May 6 debut in a 5 1/2-furlong maiden special before finishing fourth in an Ontario-sired allowance. She is a half-sister to a pair of grass winners, including stakes-placed Tamara. Mike DePaulo trains.

Flashy Anna is another entrant trying the grass for the first time. Flashy Anna is by the stakes-winning turf sprinter Bold n' Flashy, but none of her three half-siblings who competed on the grass won.