Tommy Jo winning the 2025 Spinaway, Chelsea Durand Photo
Jon Forbes
Life Changing, an impressive debut winner locally August 1, will carry high expectations into the Grade 1, $300,000 Spinaway on Saturday, at Saratoga Race Course.
The Spinaway is a seven-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies and offers a “Win and You’re In” berth into the 1 1/16-mile Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, which will be contested October 30 at Keeneland.
Life Changing, trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher for Repole Stable, was backed as the 2-1 favorite for her unveiling and validated bettors’ confidence with a seven-length triumph under jockey Luis Saez to give Pletcher one of five victories that day at the Spa.
“She just popped the gate and did everything professionally,” said owner Mike Repole. “Down the lane, she did everything. She galloped out great. Luis said she had a ton left in the tank. We think she’s really, really special. When you are a 2-year-old in Saratoga and you win your maiden, then you are going against 10 horses who have done the same thing. It’s a step up, but her time was great, Beyer number [84] was great. Todd really loves her, and I think she is going to be a special, special filly.”
Life Changing is by Life Is Good and is out of the stakes-placed dam Smart Shopping, making her a half-sister to 2024 Grade 1 Preakness winner Seize the Grey. She was purchased as a yearling by Repole Stable for $1.025 million at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale.
“We loved her, we loved her sire. I’m a big fan of Life Is Good – [I’m a] shareholder. And we loved the family, [with her being] a half-sister to Seize the Grey,” Repole said. “We didn’t think she would go to $1 million. We thought she would go for $700,000, $800,000. She always trained well on the farm, trained well at Belmont when she was with Stu [Hampson], came up here [to Saratoga] and trained well, and she ran to how she trains.”
Flavien Prat has picked up the mount aboard Life Changing, who drew the outermost post 8. Pletcher is seeking his second consecutive Spinaway victory and record-extending eighth overall, having previously won the race with Circle of Life [1999], Ashado [2003], Adieu [2005], R Heat Lightning [2010], Rachel’s Valentina [2015], Sweet Loretta [2016, dead heat with Pretty City Dancer], and Tommy Jo [2025].
The Spinaway field includes three additional fillies who are entering the race off a debut victory: Angel of Kirk, Summer Starlet, and Girvy Girl.
In her lone previous outing, Greenwell Thoroughbreds’ Angel of Kirk contested the pace from the outside, took the lead on the far turn, and needed only hand urging to report home a 4 3/4-length winner under Prat for dual Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox in a 5 1/2-furlong maiden race July 11 at the Spa.
“Her debut was really good,” said Cox. “I do think she’s improved since and she’s had plenty of time to improve. Her work [Saturday] was really good [five furlongs in 1:02.23] and I thought she had a nice gallop-out, breezed with an older maiden.
“I think she’s on it,” added Cox. “She’s always been good, from the time we started breezing her. She was one that we kind of thought would be a Saratoga type of filly as soon as we started training on her. Most of the time, that doesn’t work out, but in her case it did – she kept stepping up every week and working well.”
Angel of Kirk, a $500,000 Keeneland September yearling, is by Yaupon and out of Crazy Sweet, who was third in the Grade 2 Presque Isle Masters. Her third dam, Buckaroo Zoo, was a stakes winner who placed in a pair of graded stakes before producing Boltono, the dam of Grade 1 Vosburgh Invitational winner The Lumber Guy.
With Prat electing to ride Life Changing, Angel of Kirk will now have the services of Manny Franco from post 7.
Summer Starlet [post 2, Ricardo Santana] was professional in her debut, racing in seventh early before making an outside charge to claim the lead at the three-sixteenths pole and drive clear to a 6 1/2-length win traveling 6 1/2-furlongs on August 8 here.
Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen trains Summer Starlet, who is owned by BC Stables, Wattswood Stables, Bob Albritton, Jay Graham and David Baggett. She sold for $335,000 at Keeneland last September and is a half-sister to Grade 2-placed Coach Prime. Her distant family includes Minardi, Tale of the Cat, Fed Biz, and Red Carpet Ready.
James F. Schurman, Paul Braverman, Mark Corrado, and Albert Ciuffetelli’s Girvy Girl [post 5, Micah Husbands] blew out a maiden field by 15 lengths on July 18 at Gulfstream Park before being shipped to Saratoga by trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr. She has breezed four times over the Saratoga main track, including a four-furlong move in 47.66 seconds on Sunday.
The first-out winners will be taking on Stress Relief and Harper’s Corner, who respectively captured the Grade 3 Adirondack and Listed Schuylerville earlier in the Saratoga meet.
Stress Relief [post 4, Junior Alvarado], a Joel Politi homebred, debuted in June at Churchill Downs, dueling for the lead before running away to a five-length victory in the five-furlong maiden event.
The dark bay daughter of Not This Time subsequently joined Kinnon LaRose’s string at Saratoga with an eye on the 6 1/2-furlong Grade 3 Adirondack on August 2. In that race, she stalked the pace in fourth, moved into contention approaching the quarter pole while racing three wide, and claimed the lead from Luminous Beauty with one furlong to travel under jockey Junior Alvarado’s left-handed urging en route to a 3 1/2-length triumph.
The Adirondack was the first graded stakes win for LaRose, a native of Ogdensburg, N.Y. who played basketball at Siena University and Sacred Heart University before going on to a career in racing. LaRose worked for Tom Amoss before taking over as lead trainer upon Amoss’ retirement from training this spring.
“She ran a great race in the Adirondack,” said LaRose. “It was the first time Junior rode her in a race, and he rode her perfect. She came out of the race well and we have gotten [three] works back in her. She’s a very straightforward, classy filly. She came out of the race well, has been eating well, so, knock on wood, everything is going well to this point.
“Hopefully, she handles [the Grade 1 competition well],” LaRose added. “You come up to Saratoga and run in a Grade 1, it’s a great opportunity for us. She is going to have to step up. There are some good fillies in there, and I think she is competitive enough to compete in there. That’s the beauty of coming to Saratoga: you run against the best horses in the country, and we’re honored to be in there.”
Like Stress Relief, Harper’s Corner [post 6, Paco Lopez] was a debut winner who captured a Saratoga stakes race in her second start. Trained by Cathal Lynch for Charles L. Biggs, Harper’s Corner buckled at the start but recovered to clear on the lead and never looked back, winning a five-furlong maiden race by 7 3/4 lengths in June at Laurel Park.
Shipped north from the Fair Hill Training Center for the six-furlong Schuylerville on July 3, Harper’s Corner once again dictated terms up front before drawing away, this time to a 5 1/4-length score. Voyager, second in the Schuylerville, returned to win a Saratoga maiden special weight by a nose August 1 and is point to the Grade 1 Natalma at Woodbine.
Cha Cha Baby [post 3, Mychel Sanchez] will make her third start overall and first for trainer Butch Reid, Jr. and owner LC Racing in the Spinaway.
While racing for Gary Capuano and D. Denise Hazard, she made two starts at Delaware Park, finishing second to then-stablemate Whitten Way in June before posting a nine-length graduation on July 21. Whitten Way returned to win Delaware Park’s Blue Hen on August 8.
Completing the Spinaway field is Bandmaster [post 1, Jose Lezcano], fourth in the Adirondack for trainer Oscar Barrera, III.
The Spinaway was carded as Race 11 on Saturday’s 12-race program, which also includes the Grade 3, $225,000 With Anticipation for 2-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles on the turf in Race 2. First post is scheduled for 12:05 p.m. Eastern
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