Leave No Trace winning the Spinaway handily at Saratoga Sept. 4. NYRA/Coglianese
NYRA Press Office
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – WellSpring Stables owns a strong hand of horses in the care of conditioner Phil Serpe led by Grade 1 Spinaway winner Leave No Trace and Queen’s Plate winner Safe Conduct. Security Code, a 2-year-old daughter of Frosted, will attempt to become the latest stakes winner for her connections in Sunday’s $135,000 Key Cents, a six-furlong sprint for New York-bred juvenile fillies, at Aqueduct Racetrack.
Security Code will cut back to six furlongs from a distant fifth-place effort in the one-mile state-bred Maid of the Mist on October 30 at Belmont at the Big A. There, she tracked in fifth throughout under Dylan Davis and struggled to make up ground. Her other stakes outing was a similar fourth-place finish in the seven-furlong Joseph A. Gimma facing New York-breds on September 23 over the same course.
The Key Cents will mark the first time Security Code has raced at six furlongs since a closing maiden score at second asking on September 2 at Saratoga Race Course. She rallied from fourth-of-eight to improve her position at each point of call and score the 1 3/4-length triumph under Tyler Gaffalione.
Serpe said returning to six furlongs and adding blinkers should benefit Security Code.
“I think the blinkers will help her focus a bit better,” Serpe said. “She took a lot of kickback in her last race, and it seemed to bother her. This filly is still trying to find her way a little bit, but she’s a big, strong filly and I think you’ll see her improve.”
Bred by Rockridge Stud, Ascendant Farms and Godolphin, Security Code is out of the graded stakes-placed Montbrook mare Stopspendingmaria, making her a half-sister to stakes-winner No Mo’ Spending and stakes-placed Blewitt.
Two days after Serpe sent out Security Code to break her maiden at the Spa, he celebrated a Grade 1 triumph with WellSpring Stables’ Leave No Trace in the $300,000 Spinaway. The daughter of Outwork upset the field of 10 at odds of 14-1 and came home 1 1/2 lengths the better of subsequent Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies victress Wonder Wheel.
Leave No Trace went on to finish a game third next out in the Grade 1 Frizette on October 2 at Belmont the Big A before shipping to Kentucky to take on the best OF her division in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. There, she attended the pace set by Grand Love and took a half-length lead at the stretch call but was collared in the stretch by familiar foe Wonder Wheel and defeated three lengths when second.
“She came back in very good shape and she’s just walking the shed row,” said Serpe. “We’re probably going to give her five or six weeks off and then get her ready for her 3-year-old campaign. She wouldn’t run again until sometime in February or so.”
Multiple graded stakes-placed Safe Conduct, who was last seen finishing a gutsy third in the Grade 3 Knickerbocker won by King Cause on October 9 at Belmont at the Big A, will be freshened and brought back in the spring for a 5-year-old campaign.
“He’s doing well and getting a little breather right now,” Serpe said. “He won’t run back again until next year.”
The Ontario-bred son of Bodemeister tracked in second to the stretch call of the nine-furlong Knickerbocker and was headed by runner-up Pixelate at the top of the lane. Those two battled down the stretch before the latter got his nose down in time for place honors with Safe Conduct holding off the late bid of Field Pass by a neck for show.
Safe Conduct’s best win came in last year’s $1 million Queen’s Plate at Woodbine Racetrack where he held off Riptide Rock by a head to claim victory in Canada’s most prestigious race for sophomores. He went on to close out his campaign with two more stakes placings when runner-up in Aqueduct’s Gio Ponti and third in the Tropical Park Derby at Gulfstream Park. This year, he earned two graded placings with a second-place finish in the Grade 3 Monmouth at its namesake track and in the Knickerbocker.
