No Mo’ Spending continues to improve with more distance in Thursday’s Joseph A. Gimma. Susie Raisher/NYRA Photo.
By Tom Law
Two days after No Mo’ Spending made her second start – and first against New York-breds as the 8-5 favorite – this summer at Saratoga Race Course, trainer Ian Wilkes offered an honest assessment of the daughter of Uncle Mo.
“Just too short for her, she wants more distance,” Wilkes said walking back to his barn after he finished training a set on Clare Court. “I’ve run her 5, 5 ½, which is a shame because she’s a big filly who wants to sit and travel, and run a little further.”
Wilkes liked what he saw in that second start Aug. 5, a third by 1 ¾ lengths that followed a seventh against open company at Churchill Downs in mid-June. He called her “improving” and set sights on longer races. Stretched out another furlong 25 days later at Saratoga, No Mo’ Spending improved again and won by 3 1/2 lengths.
After being stretched out even further, to 7 furlongs Thursday for the $97,000 Joseph A. Gimma at Belmont Park, No Mo’ Spending became a stakes winner after edging past pacesetter Irish Constitution in deep stretch.
Under Javier Castellano for owners Randy Bloch, Six Column Stables, David Hall, Michael Steele, Jim Gladden and Gene Rice, No Mo’ Spending won by a neck from Irish Constitution with 19-1 longshot maiden Chasing Cara 4 ½ lengths back in third and 8-5 favorite Stimulus Check fourth in the field of five. No Mo’ Spending won in 1:25.08, earning $55,000 to pad her bankroll to $97,416.
“Ray Handal’s horse (Irish Constitution) ran a huge race,” said Wilkes, who watched the race from Kentucky and left the saddling to friend and trainer Jim Bond’s son Ryan. “I was very proud of my filly. She really had to dig in to get there. You could just see that she switched leads well today. The other filly got through some easy fractions early, but we were able to wear her down in the stretch. When she switched leads, I was just hoping to get there, and our filly ran well.”
Bred by Mike Repole’s Repole Stable and the fourth foal out of the winning Grade 2-placed Montbrook mare Stopspendingmaria, No Mo’ Spending sold to Brad Stephens’ Six Column for $180,000 in the fifth session of last year’s Keeneland September yearling sale. No Mo’ Spending is a full sister to Blewitt, the mare’s first foal who finished third in this past summer’s Lubash Stakes at Saratoga and is 4-for-14 carrying Repole’s colors.
Stopspendingmaria, second in the Grade 3 Schuylerville in 2010, is also the dam of the winning New York-bred Overanalyze mare Analyzeyurspending.
Wilkes considered aiming No Mo’ Spending high for her next start after her Aug. 30 maiden victory, training her at his base at Skylight Training Center in Goshen, Ky., for a potential return to open company.
“I toyed with the idea of the Alcibiades, but I decided to go with the more conservative route,” he said of Keeneland’s Opening Day Grade 1 feature for 2-year-old fillies. “She’s a big 2-year-old filly and I think she needs a little more time before you see the better of her. Where we go from here, I don”t know. I’ll talk to all of the owners, get her back here and see how she handles everything.”
