Spirit Rules set for graded stakes debut in Kona Gold

CYPRESS, Calif. – He’s a 6-year-old stakes winner with earnings of $327,238, and yet Spirit Rules still has something to prove when he makes his graded stakes debut in Saturday’s $200,000 Kona Gold Stakes at Santa Anita.

“I want to find out if he fits,” trainer Paul Aguirre said Wednesday at Los Alamitos. “If he doesn’t, we’ll find a plan.”

Owned by a partnership, Spirit Rules won the California Cup Sprint for statebreds at six furlongs Jan. 24 and finished in a dead heat for third in the Sensational Star Stakes for statebreds on the hillside turf course Feb. 21.

Aguirre and the partners could wait for the $100,000 San Simeon Stakes, a Grade 3 against open company on the hillside April 19, but have opted for the more lucrative Kona Gold, run at 6 1/2 furlongs.

“There are so many good horses on the hillside,” Aguirre said.

Spirit Rules has won 5 of 17 starts. The Cal Cup Sprint was his seventh appearance in a stakes, with most of the previous races in statebred company. Spirit Rules, by Tribal Rule, disputed the pace in the Cal Cup Sprint and won by a half-length as a 12-1 shot. Aguirre envisions a more reserved role in the Kona Gold.

“We’ll try to be patient,” Aguirre said. “There is a lot of speed in there.”

The Kona Gold, previously run as the Potrero Grande Stakes, is expected to be the 2015 debut of Sahara Sky, a four-time stakes winner and millionaire best known for winning the Metropolitan Mile Handicap at Belmont Park in 2013.

Others in the projected field include Masochistic, who has won 4 of 6 starts, and San Onofre, who was second in the Cal Cup Sprint. Masochistic was transferred to trainer Ron Ellis last month after previous trainer A.C. Avila began a 60-day suspension for a medication violation. Masochistic tested in excess of the permitted level of tranquilizer when he finished fifth in his debut at Santa Anita in March 2014.