Spirit Wind the class of Poinsettia field

Spirit Wind will be looking to close a memorable year of racing Saturday when she faces 11 other fillies and mares in the $150,000 Poinsettia Stakes going 5 1/2 furlongs at Oaklawn Park.

The field includes six stakes winners, including Holly Dolly, who is attempting to win her sixth consecutive race.

Spirit Wind, who is cross-entered in the Sugar Swirl at Gulfstream Park, shipped into Oaklawn for the Poinsettia early in the week, according to her trainer, Saffie Joseph Jr. She is the class of the field Saturday as a Grade 2 winner who has earned nearly $650,000.

Spirit Wind hit a high point in July, when she won the Honorable Miss at Saratoga for Miller Racing, which had privately purchased the mare. She made her first start for her new connections in March.

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“She turned out to be a really good buy,” Joseph said. “She took us to Texas. She won. She won the Grade 2 at Saratoga, which that means a lot, and then she’s just been ultra-consistent.

“Hopefully, she can finish out the year with a bang. It feels like this is a good spot. I think five and a half, six [furlongs], that’s really her sweet spot, her distance.”

Spirit Wind enters off a third-place finish in the Dream Supreme on Nov. 9 at Churchill Downs in which she broke last in the field of six. Since the race, the fourth-place finisher, Accomplished Girl, and the fifth-place finisher, Awesome Treat, have both returned to win stakes. Spirit Wind, meanwhile, will go without blinkers Saturday.

“We used to run her with a scoop blinker, an extended blinker,” Joseph said of a type of cup worn on her right, or outside, eye. “When we first got her, she was kind of getting out a little bit. We thought it served its purpose for a while, but she didn’t break as well last time, and I feel like she doesn’t need it anymore, so we’ll get her back to her usual race.”

Spirit Wind, who has won multiple races without the equipment, will start from post 7 under Fernando Jara.

“She didn’t get away well last time, that’s why we kind of took off that extension blinker, just so she could have a better look,” Joseph said. “Ideally, we’d like to be on the lead with her, or just thereabouts.”

Trainer Chris Hartman is hoping stakes winner Fibber will get a favorable pace scenario in the Poinsettia. She will break from the rail under Rafael Bejarano.

“There is enough pace in that race for her,” Hartman said. “Hopefully, we get to sit just off of them, find a seam late with her, and see what happens.

“The pace scenario should favor her, I would think,” Hartman said.

Royal Spa is cutting back from a one-turn mile effort in the Grade 3 Chilukki at Churchill Downs. She was a fast-closing second and will break from post 12 on Saturday under Cristian Torres.

Holly Dolly won the Zia Park Distaff last out for Tom Durant and trainer Ray Ashford Jr.

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