Twirling Cinnamon finds right spot in Sugar Bowl

NEW ORLEANS – Yes, the idea is for horses to win races, but winning his career debut in June might not have been the best thing for the 2-year-old colt Twirling Cinnamon.

Twirling Cinnamon debuted at Churchill and overcame a terribly troubled trip to get up by a nose, but he finished eighth in the Sanford Stakes at Saratoga and eighth in the Iroquois Stakes at Churchill in his next two races.

On Saturday, in the $50,000 Sugar Bowl at Fair Grounds, Twirling Cinnamon looks poised to finally get that first stakes win. He’s one of seven 2-year-olds entered in the six-furlong race and will be difficult to deny at short odds.

“He was probably a little bit of a victim of winning first time out,” said trainer Brad Cox. “He was a very green horse that got up by a nose. You break your maiden early in the year, and you have to go into a stakes, and he was still an immature horse.”

Twirling Cinnamon won a two-turn turf allowance race at Indiana Grand before finishing a close fifth after a troubled start last out at Keeneland in the $100,000 Juvenile Dirt Sprint.

“He’s really been training well over the last month at Churchill with no place to run,” Cox said. “He’s really moved forward the last 30 days, and I think the long stretch here will really fit him.”

D. Shifflett, second, just in front of the promising Mo Tom, last out in a Keeneland allowance race, looks like the primary competition.

“We’ve kind of spaced his races out, and he’s matured, filled out, and is training well over this track,” trainer Mike Stidham said.

Maiden formidable in Letellier

Speightstastic is a three-race maiden who could wind up being the betting favorite in the $50,000 Letellier Memorial for 2-year-old fillies at six furlongs on dirt.

Rather than running back two weeks after a maiden start at Churchill, trainer Bret Calhoun scratched the filly from a maiden race last weekend in favor of a start in the Letellier. Speightstastic has finished second in all three of her races, but the fillies who beat her – Susies Yankee Girl, Durango, and Royal Obsession – all appeared to be above-average maiden winners.

“When she first came to us, she was real aggressive, wanted to do everything too early and too fast, and we spent all our time getting her to relax,” said Calhoun.

Princess Kennedy drops in class from two graded stakes in Kentucky and turns back from a pair of routes to a sprint for trainer Stidham, and she could match up well with Speightstastic and Above Fashion, who exits the Grade 3 Delta Princess.

“She’s pretty fast but should race from kind of a stalking position,” said Stidham. “She had a month off at the farm before she came to me, and she’s made one step forward after the next here. I think she’s very live in that spot.”