Spiced Perfection prevails in Betty Grable Stakes
DEL MAR, Calif. – Just about everybody likes Del Mar, but there might not be a horse more enamored of the place than Spiced Perfection, who continued her love affair with this track by winning the $100,690 Betty Grable Stakes on Sunday, giving her four wins in six starts here.
She’s just 1 for 7 everywhere else – at Santa Anita and Los Alamitos. Only once has she failed to fire here, when finishing fourth in the Fleet Treat Stakes last summer, the only time she has finished worse than second at Del Mar. But she atoned for that race on Sunday by finishing in front of the three fillies who beat her that day – Just Grazed Me, Show It N Moe It, and One Fast Broad.
Spiced Perfection ($10.60) split horses in upper stretch of the seven-furlong race under Flavien Prat, and it was no contest thereafter, as she checked in 2 1/4 lengths in front of Just Grazed Me. S Y Sky, the 2-1 favorite, was another 1 1/4 lengths back in third in the eight-horse field. Mo See Cal was scratched and is back in on Thursday.
“She’s a tough filly. She gives her all every time,” said Brian Koriner, who trains Spiced Perfection for the Dare to Dream Stable. “Flavien rode her great.
“When the hole opened up, she just got through. It was kinda tight. She was lucky she got through.”
Spiced Perfection was timed in 1:23.21 on the fast main track. She was one of three winners for Koriner on Sunday.
Joe Talamo had ridden Spiced Perfection in her 12 prior starts but opted to go with S Y Sky, whom Talamo had ridden in all of her races, too. Koriner said getting Prat was a matter of running into his agent, Derek Lawson, soon after he found out Talamo was sticking with S Y Sky.
“They took off,” Koriner said of Talamo and agent Scotty McClellan. “Luckily, I saw Derek in the grandstand that day.”
The Betty Grable, for older female California-bred sprinters, marked the fifth win in 13 lifetime starts for Spiced Perfection, who now has career earnings of $442,405 after taking home $57,000 on Sunday.
Spiced Perfection, 3, is by Smiling Tiger. Koriner said she will remain in training next year.
:: Want to get the latest news with your past performances? Try DRF’s new digital PPs
