Spring at Last, the leading first-crop sire in North America in 2012, will have two of his best progeny in this year’s Breeders’ Cup Championships at Santa Anita Park.
Spring in the Air (Grade 1 Juvenile Fillies) and Spring Venture (Grade 1 Juvenile Fillies Turf) will both shoot for glory on Friday, Nov. 2 in their respective races.
Spring in the Air, winner of the Grade 1 Alcibiades S. Oct. 5 at Keeneland last time out, was bred by WinStar Farm. The bay filly burst onto the scene when she broke her maiden by 10 lengths at Woodbine in August. She then finished second to stablemate Spring Venture in the Grade 2 Natalma S. on the Woodbine turf. She’ll break from post three of nine in Friday’s $2 million contest, with regular rider Patrick Husbands in the irons.
Spring Venture, undefeated in three starts, will face a full field of 14 in the $1 million, one-mile turf affair. Also trained by Mark Casse and ridden by Husbands, Spring Venture has looked stellar in all three of her outings, each at Woodbine. After an easy maiden win at seven furlongs on the turf, she handily won the aforementioned Natalma by 1 ¾ lengths, then came back on Oct. 6 with another powerful win in the Grade 3 Mazarine S. at 1 1/16 miles on the main track.
