BY BROCK SHERIDAN
JANUARY 25, 1995—Florida-bred Chaposa Springs becomes a graded stakes-winner in the first start of her 3-year-old campaign with a length-and-three-quarters score in the Grade 2 Forward Gal Breeders’ Cup at Gulfstream Park.
Ridden by Heberto Castillo, Jr. and trained by Martin Wolfson, Chaposa Springs raced just to the outside of Bluff’s Dividend and Prospector’s Fuel thorough quarter-mile splits of :22.27 and :45.32 in the seven-furlong test for 3-year-old fillies. She tipped out around the far turn to take a clear lead in the stretch then safely held sway as 4-5 favorite Culver City came on late to finish second as they completed the distance in 1:24.18 on the fast track. Mackenzie Slew was third.
Chaposa Springs paid $10.60 to win.
Owned by Suresh Chintamaneni and bred in Florida by W. A. Fabry and Jeffrey E. Johnson, Chaposa Springs would finish 1995 with six wins, all in stakes, in 10 starts with three seconds while banking $400,608. Later that year she won the Grade 1 Test at Saratoga Race Course in July, the Grade 3 Meadowlands Budweiser Breeders’ Cup Handicap in September and the Grade 3 Virginia Handicap at Calder in December. She also won the $28,200 Jasmine in April and the Listed Hibiscus Breeders’ Cup in May, both at Hialeah Park.
The victory in the Virginia Handicap started a six-race win streak that culminated with a half-length victory in the Grade 1 Ballerina Handicap in August of 1996 at Saratoga.
Chaposa Springs retired after winning 14 of 23 career starts with five seconds and earnings of $762,115.
Return to the January 25 issue of Wire to Wire