Spinaway victory by Leave No Trace the icing on the cake for Serpe

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – When Leave No Trace won Sunday’s Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes, it capped a terrific Saratoga meet for trainer Phil Serpe.

Serpe had won with 6 of 15 starters through Sunday – he had one more entered Monday – and won two stakes. He captured the Union Avenue Stakes for New York-bred fillies with Bank On Anna.

“We work hard,” Serpe said. “We do the best we can with the horses we have. We’re thankful for these nice 2-year-olds. With Leave No Trace, you get lucky enough to get a horse that can really run and she can really run. That’s what you hope for every year.”

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Leave No Trace was responsible for two of Serpe’s six wins at the meet, having won her maiden at first asking on July 20. Serpe also won a maiden with the 2-year-old filly Security Code, who is a New York-bred. Serpe trains both fillies for Rob and Laura Vukovich’s WellSpring Stables.

“She’s a nice, big, beautiful, well-made filly,” Serpe said Monday of Security Code. “We’re just as excited about her as the filly that won yesterday.”

Security Code, a daughter of Frosted, could be a candidate for the $125,000 Joseph A. Gimma Stakes on Sept. 23 at Aqueduct.

Serpe said he is hoping to get Leave No Trace to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 4 at Keeneland. He isn’t sure whether she will run in the Grade 1 Frizette on Oct. 2 at Aqueduct, the Grade 1 Alcibiades on Oct. 7 at Keeneland, or just train up to the race.

“We’ll see how things go over the next week or so once we get her back to the track, and come up with a plan,” he said.

Leave No Trace, who gave her sire Outwork his first graded stakes winner, earned a 76 Beyer Speed Figure for the Spinaway win.

Wonder Wheel, the Spinaway runner-up, will target the Alcibiades, trainer Mark Casse said after the race.

Serpe will look to run Bank On Anna in the $150,000 Iroquois Stakes on Oct. 30 at Aqueduct, with potentially a race in between. Bank On Anna, a 3-year-old daughter of Central Banker, is 4 for 6 this year.

Serpe scratched Bank On Anna out of last Friday’s Grade 2 Prioress Stakes here, thinking it might have been too tough. Wicked Halo won the Prioress by a neck over the late-running New York-bred Sterling Silver.

“The way it played out, if I would have run her in there, I think she would have been competitive,” Serpe said.