BY BROCK SHERIDAN
Miller Racing LLC’s Spirit Wind won her second straight stakes with a front-running victory in the Grade 2 Honorable Miss at Saratoga Race Course Wednesday. The 5-year-old Florida-bred daughter of Double Diamond Farm stallion Bahamian Squall also won her second career graded stakes while defeating four other fillies and mares going six furlongs in the $194,000 Honorable Miss.
Ridden from post four by Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith, Spirit Wind broke sharply to take the early lead from fellow Florida-bred Munnys Gold to her outside for the run down the backstretch. Spirit Wind put a length and-a-half on Clearly Unhinged and Munnys Gold together in second through a quarter mile in :22.22 and maintained that advantage into the turn. Munnys Gold and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. tried to apply pressure around the bend and were nearly on even terms passing the quarter-mile marker with Clearly Unhinged just behind them in third at the top of the stretch.
Clearly Unhinged tried to muster a challenge again between horses as Munnys Gold remained in contention on the outside before Spirit Wind shook off those foes inside the sixteenth pole. Accede came with a late flourish on the outside but was unable to catch Spirit Wind, who crossed under the wire three-quarters of a length in front in 1:10.36 on the fast track. Accede was second, a half-length faster than Clearly Unhinged in third. Munnys Gold was fourth with Sterling Silver fifth and last. Everyoneloveslinda, Freedom Speaks and Hot Fudge were scratched.
“You know I was warming her up and she was just oozing confidence,” Smith said. “I said, ‘I ain’t going to keep her off the lead today!’ Sure enough that’s all it was, I just kept the weight on her back. [Trainer] Saffie [Joseph Jr.] and his crew did a tremendous job and I just made sure she kept on running.”
Smith explained that a full-cup blinker that covers the right eye of Spirit Wind puts on emphasis on the importance of communication between horse and rider.
“She didn’t [see Accede] but I did, that’s why I reached back and gave her a few little love reminders letting her know, ‘hey, they are out there. I know you can’t see them but they are there,’” Smith explained. “She knows that when you do that that they are probably there, so she responded. Really beat them probably even easier than what it even looked.”
Spirit Wind paid $12 to win at 5-1 odds, the second-longest price in the field.
Spirit Wind came out of a victory in the $100,000 Memorial Day Sprint against fillies and mares at Lone Star Park on May 27 after finishing sixth in the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff won by Vahva at Churchill Downs on May 4.
“It was a big performance – six furlongs, I think she’s as good as any,” Joseph said. “Unfortunately, most of the races are seven-furlongs for the fillies, so that’s kind of unfortunate for her. Today, she made the lead pretty easy. She was able to hang on and get a big win on her resume.”
Purchased privately by Miller Racing LLC after winning the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl at Gulfstream Park in December, Spirit Wind debuted for her new owners with a third to winner Red Carpet Ready in the Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie at Gulfstream on March 9.
Spirit Wind is out of Sacred Psalm, by Awesome of Course and was bred in Florida by Jacks or Better Farm Inc. She has now won seven of 12 career starts with two seconds and a third. Sacred Psalm has eight winners from nine starters and 12 foals including stakes-placed runners Silent Prayer, by Brooks ‘n Down; and Guardian Angel, by Jess’s Dream. She has an unraced 2-year-old colt, Lead Pipe Joe, by Brooks ‘n Down; and an unnamed yearling colt by Vino Rosso. She was bred to Army Mule in 2023.
Spirit Wind is a fourth-generation product of the longtime Florida breeding program of the late Fred Brei and his Jacks or Better Farm Inc. Jacks or Better purchased her third dam, the Honey Jay mare Nifty Fifty, for $170,000 at the 1997 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
