Talented comebacker Spirit Wind rekindles memories of the late Fred Brei
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Winning a race like Friday’s $87,000 main event at Gulfstream Park with a talented filly like Spirit Wind is special for any trainer. But winning this particular race will mean more than usual to her trainer, Ralph Nicks, in light of the recent passing of Spirit Wind’s owner-breeder Fred Brei.
Spirit Wind will likely go postward the favorite in a field of just six older fillies and mares going six furlongs despite the fact she has not started since finishing second behind defending race winner and odds-on favorite Ce Ce in the Grade 2 Princess Rooney nine months earlier. The homebred daughter of Bahamian Squall had captured each of her three previous starts at 3, including the Any Limit and Musical Romance stakes.
“She developed some bone bruising and needed some time,” said Nicks when asked the reason for Spirit Wind’s prolonged absence. “Most of the work preparing her for her return was done on the farm. I’ve had her a little over three weeks and she seems happy and to be moving well.
“The talent still seems to be there and we’re using this race as a prep for the next step, which hopefully will be the Derby City Distaff on Derby Day at Churchill Downs.”
As for Brei, Nicks had nothing but kind words to say for his principal owner whose long list of accomplishments as a Florida owner-breeder include having owned and bred the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner and 2-year-old filly champion Awesome Feather.
“Fred left behind an amazing legacy for what he’s done with his Florida homebreds over the years,” Nicks said. “And I’d love nothing more than to carry on that legacy with this filly, to hopefully go on and do some special things with her, because she was always very special to him.”
Along with deciding how to handle the classy Spirit Wind off the layoff, handicappers also will have to figure where the undefeated but lightly raced Basking fits coming off a lengthy hiatus of her own in Friday’s feature, which is the only race carded over the main track on the nine-race program.
Basking made her debut for trainer Lisa Lewis as a 2-year-old during the summer of 2021 and despite trouble ran off the screen to a 10 1/2-length victory while competing over a sloppy track. She would not return for 14 months but did so with a flourish, overcoming an even more eventful trip to defeat allowance company by three parts of a length trying the Tapeta course for the first time here last September.
Lewis said Basking went back to the sidelines after popping a splint following her most recent victory. She’s had six recorded works, including a pair of bullet half-miles at her winter home at Payson Park in preparation for yet another comeback.
“We needed to cool out the splint, then start all over with her,” Lewis said. “She’s also had chronic foot issues, she wears glue-on shoes, which she wore in the allowance race last summer. She’s a nice filly but she’s just been frustrating with the starting and stopping.
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“She’s been training really well and she’s ready to run, but obviously off the layoff she’s giving time and seasoning to these other fillies.”
For those inclined to side against the two idled fillies, the options include the speedy Bluefield, who has finished second and third under similar conditions going six and seven furlongs in her last two starts, and You Look Cold, who steps up in company after defeating lesser allowance competition by 5 1/4 lengths in her most recent start.
The Steve Dwoskin-trained duo of Choose Joy and Starship Nala complete the lineup.
– additional reporting by David Grening
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