Vannacide wraps up her year at Arapahoe

Vannacide has had one annual objective since she launched her racing career in 2003 - the Arapahoe Park meet. So when she runs at the Aurora, Colo., track in the closing-weekend Spicy Stakes, it will be the final start of the year for the 8-year-old mare.

"We just run her here and take her home," said Kenneth Gleason, who trains Vannacide for her breeder, Bill Vanlandingham. "She'll be back up here next year."

Vannacide will be looking for her third stakes win of the meet in the $25,000 Spicy. For statebred fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles, the race drew a field of six. She's Outrageous, the defending champ, enters off a runner-up finish to Vannacide last month in the $23,000 Columbine.

Vannacide's other stakes win this meet came in the $31,000 Ingrid Knotts on May 20. She used closing tactics in both races, and figures to again be making her case late under regular rider Adrian Ramos.

"She comes from off of it," said Gleason, who leads the trainer standings at Arapahoe.

Other than a handful of races at the Woodlands in Kansas, which is now shuttered, Vannacide has made the bulk of her starts at Arapahoe. She has registered 11 of her 14 career wins in Aurora, and earned $193,887 of her $225,447 career total. Following the Arapahoe meet, Gleason said, Vannacide will be on vacation at Vanlandingham's farm in Kansas.