Up against one of the toughest fields of her career in the March 9 Hillsborough Stakes (G2T) at Tampa Bay Downs, Sparkle Blue rose to the occasion with a glittering front-running victory over more highly touted rivals.
When expected pacesetter Marketsegmentation was scratched the morning of the race, the lead was left ripe for the taking when the gates opened for the $200,000 Hillsborough. Jockey Jorge Ruiz wasted no time on Sparkle Blue and the pair swept to take the advantage, ambling through leisurely early fractions of :25.38 and :52.11. With the field tightly bunched behind her, Sparkle Blue struck the six-furlong marker in a sloth-like 1:17.44 and it became apparent it would be a game of catch me if you can as the field turned for home.
“I saw there was no speed in the race. My filly broke very well and I said ‘Let’s go, baby,'” Ruiz of the Graham Motion-trained Sparkle Blue.
Grade 1 winner Aspen Grove was the first to make a run at Sparkle Blue, skimming the rail in a last-to-second move to draw even with the Hard Spun mare halfway to the wire. Fluffy Socks and Elusive Princess , left scrambling after the sluggish pace, were launching measured bids but couldn’t close fast enough as Sparkle Blue rebuffed her foes under the wire.
Sparkle Blue ($15.40) finished a half-length safe of Aspen Grove at the wire in a final time of 1:52.62 for 1 1/8 miles on a firm turf course.
“I didn’t tell (jockey Jorge Ruiz) what to do, but I had a feeling she might end up on the lead,” Motion said. “Jorge let her do her thing and she actually did it pretty easily. The fractions were soft and it looked like he had a lot of horse left. She’s a nice filly, a tough filly, and he gave her a beautiful ride.”
Aspen Grove, making her first start in more than four months for trainer Jack Sisterson, was a neck better than Fluffy Socks in third.
“We are over the moon with the way (Aspen Grove) ran off the layoff,” Sisterson said. “From 3 turning 4 you want to see them keep progressing and I think she did that. If there was pace in the race it might have turned out differently, though we’re still over the moon with the way she ran.”
Elusive Princess, another returning from a lengthy layoff, was a neck behind in fourth.
Sparkle Blue, campaigned by breeder Catherine Parke in partnership with Augustin Stable, is the last foal out of her dam Silk n’ Sapphire (by Smart Strike), the dam of another Motion alumnus, Shared Account . Winner of the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1T), Shared Account kept it all in the family when she produced 2019 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T) heroine Sharing , who was also trained by Motion.
A stakes winner at ages 3 and 4, the Hillsborough was Sparkle Blue’s first black-type score as a 5-year-old. The win increased her earnings to $818,777.
Kentucky-bred Sparkle Blue became the first graded winner of 2024 for Darley stallion Hard Spun . A perennial top 10 leading stallion, the son of Danzig is the sire of 15 individual grade 1 winners worldwide. He stands the 2024 breeding season for a fee of $35,000.
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