Sprinting Stars – Spinning Hill
If there are two things we learnt during the Turf Heroes series, they are that (1) a surprising number of people seem to like reading about champion thoroughbreds; and (2) Cliff can’t shut up about such horses. With that in mind, Making The Nut is pleased to bring you a ten-part ‘Sprinting Stars’ series, where Cliff Bingham will look back upon the short course specialists who scorched turf at the highest level. Part five of the series reminisces about the terrific Guy Walter-trained mare, Spinning Hill.
Previous instalments of the Sprinting Stars series:
Part 1: Schillaci
Part 2: Mahogany
Part 3: General Nediym
Part 4: Falvelon
The career
The career of Spinning Hill did not begin auspiciously in July 1999 – she ran seventh on debut at Canterbury and followed this up with an eighth-placed finish at Warwick Farm two and a half weeks later. However both runs had been in part attributable to poor barrier draws and at her next two starts she took advantage of gates three and one respectively to win twice over the 1200-metre journey at Randwick.
These two wins were sufficient for trainer Guy Walter to take her to Melbourne for the latter part of the spring. She ran third at Caulfield (despite jumping from the outside barrier of 16 runners) and then ran second at Flemington on Melbourne Cup day in the Listed Great Western Stakes to end her first preparation.
In February 2000 she resumed against the three year-old fillies in the Group 2 Light Fingers Stakes at Randwick, finishing sixth to Camena. Thereafter she ran second to Ad Alta in the Group 2 Surround Stakes at Warwick Farm and fourth to The Golden Dane in a Listed race at Rosehill.
Her first step up into open age company came in the Listed Sapphire Stakes at Randwick – the form of that autumn’s three year-old crop was franked when she was able to overcome barrier 14 to finish over the top of her rivals and claim her third career win. Returning to her own age bracket, the final run of the autumn resulted in a third behind Poppett in the Listed James H.B. Carr Stakes over 1400 metres.
She had concluded her second preparation with a total of three wins and four placings from 11 starts, but interestingly had three wins and a third from only six starts at distances of 1200 metres or shorter. Hold that thought for a while.
The spring of 2000 would be cut short for Spinning Hill, but not before she gave a sign of things to come with two wins from as many starts, both in Listed company against the girls (the Nivison and the Research Stakes, which has since been elevated to Group 3 status).
February 2001 saw the mate pick up where she had left off in the spring. She began the preparation with a win in the Listed Breeders’ Classic (now a Group 2) at Randwick over 1200 metres and then repeated the dose four weeks later at Canterbury in the Listed Birthday Card Stakes over the same journey. A step up to both a 1500-metre trip and Group 1 company in the Coolmore Classic would prove unfruitful as she ran ninth behind Porto Roca, but quickly rebounded by successfully defending her Sapphire Stakes crown, this time as a four year-old.
Her last six attempts over 1200 metres had yielded six victories, sufficient for her to earn a shot at WFA company in the Group 3 (now Group 1) TJ Smith Stakes. In her first ever race against the boys she ran tremendously (defeating the likes of Falvelon, Testa Rossa, Mr. Innocent and Lord Essex) but could not catch the flying three year-old Century Kid, finishing second.
Brisbane was the next stop on the agenda, with the Group 1 Doomben 10,000 the first of two targeted races. The 10,000 featured a rematch with Falvelon, but despite running on strongly late in the race she was unable to catch the Queenslander this time around, finishing a close second once again.
Nonetheless her strong finishing burst at Doomben, coupled with the longer Eagle Farm straight and the inviting combination of 52.5 kilos and barrier three, saw her well supported in the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap. I remember it well…. she carried my cash that day. Sadly for both connections and my wallet, she failed to finish the race off strongly and ran ninth to Crawl to end her campaign.
A shorter than average spell was to follow before she lined up in the Group 3 Concorde Stakes at Rosehill in late August 2001 – her first career run over 1100 metres. Despite drawing barrier 12 and having to lump 58 kilos against the boys, she ran on strongly for third place behind Phoenix Park. A fourth placing to Shogun Lodge in the Group 2 Theo Marks Stakes and a twelfth to Final Fantasy in the Group 1 Epsom Handicap (shortened to 1400 metres that year as it was run on the Kensington track at Randwick) concluded a short and unsuccessful preparation, albeit one that perpetuated an existing trend in her performances.
At this point her career had resulted in eight wins and seven placings from 23 starts. More telling though was the following split – eight wins and three placings from 13 starts at 1200 metres or shorter; zero wins and four placings from ten starts over longer trips. The die was well and truly cast – how best to utilise her talents remained the only conundrum.
February 2002 began the change in tack with the Group 1 Lightning Stakes – taking on Group 1 WFA gallopers in her first ever race start over the 1000-metre dash. Her ‘get back, run on’ style seemed unsuited to such a quick flourish of a race but she proved the doubter wrong, finishing with an electric burst to record her inaugural Group 1 victory (and indeed her first Group victory of any description, albeit that she had six Listed wins to her name).
A month later she returned to Flemington for another Group 1 sprint, this time the Newmarket Handicap. Her Lightning Stakes win and overall 1200-metre record saw her well fancied in the race but she failed to fire, finishing fourteenth to Rubitano. She then returned to Randwick, running second to Fair Embrace when attempting to win a third straight Sapphire Stakes and running third to Phoenix Park in the TJ Smith (already elevated to Group 2 status by that point) to conclude the campaign.
New challenges were once again on the agenda in the spring of 2002, beginning with her first Moonee Valley foray in the Group 1 Manikato Stakes. The tight turning track had in the past brought many a run-on style horse undone but with Patrick Payne aboard for the first time, she proved too strong in the short home straight en route to her second Group 1 victory. A second career trip (the first since her three year-old days) to Caulfield was next for the Group 2 Schillaci Stakes, where a drop in distance to 1000 metres proved no obstacle as she maintained her form of four weeks prior in recording another strong win.
She then returned to Moonee Valley for the Group 2 Schweppes Stakes a fortnight later, with champion Godolphin rider Frankie Dettori in the saddle as a ‘special guest jokey’ of sorts. In a small but quality field, she made it three wins from as many starts for the spring in a finish where the small margin of victory belied its ease. The final run of her preparation came in the Group 2 Linlithgow Stakes but a fourth straight win proved elusive, as she ran fourth to talented three year-old (and subsequent international victor) Choisir.
2003 brought with it a sporadic (and quite spread out) summer and autumn campaign. First up was a defence of her Lightning Stakes crown and a rematch with her Linlithgow nemesis in Choisir. The three year-old would have her measure once again though, defeating Spinning Hill by three quarters of a length. Six weeks later she lined up in the Group 1 Australia Stakes and ran third to another promising three year-old in Yell.
A further six weeks passed before she lined up in Sydney for her third run of the campaign in the TJ Smith, a race she had run second and third in the previous two years. The third time would prove the charm though as she recorded her fifth victory at Group level. In relative terms the two week gap to her final autumn run in the Doomben 10,000 was brief but it didn’t alter her pattern of results over longer trips, finishing third to Bel Esprit on this occasion.
Another campaign, another defence of a Group 1 crown (this time, the Manikato Stakes) to kick things off. On this occasion the defence was successful, adding to an impressive streak of mares wins in the race (prior to the two wins from Spinning Hill, Piavonic in 2001 and Sunline in 2000 had each taken out the race).
The remainder of her spring was a carbon copy of the 2002 spring in terms of races run (Schillaci Stakes, Schweppes Stakes and Linlithgow Stakes) but the level of success could not be repeated. She ran third to Haliberry in the Schillaci, second to Our Egyptian Raine in the Schweppes and sixth to the same mare in the Linlithgow. Now a six year-old mare, was age starting to take its toll on her chances against the best sprinters in the country?
The final answer was delivered in February 20004 when Spinning Hill lined up for her third run in the Lightning Stakes but failed to threaten, running eighth to flying Queensland filly Regimental Gal.
In sprinting more than in middle distance and staying races, a promising three year-old with a pull in the weights can match (or indeed beat) high quality older horses, and thus the writing was on the wall for this excellent mare. Guy Walter understood this and closed the curtain on what had been an outstanding sprinting career.
The memories
Much as with Falvelon, you could skim over her overall race record and if you were feeling a tad cynical, potentially find reasons to pot her.
Prior to the 2002 Lightning Stakes, she’d only ever won in against other mares. She needed too much to go right in order to win against the best (as a backmarker, this is really a par for the course sort of statement). She was only an elite sprinter for two seasons. And so on.
Of course, to do this would be to miss one of the key elements of her career – namely that it took a good couple of seasons to fully establish that she was a pure sprinter and 1200 metres was her limit in some sense. To wit, her career record broken up by distance of race:
Up to 1200 metres: 14 wins (including 12 black type wins and five wins in ‘Sprinting Star criteria’ races) and nine placings from 29 starts
Beyond 1200 metres: Zero wins and five placings from 11 starts.
For 12 to 18 months she suckered me too, in the end providing an important lesson about horse racing patterns.
I had watched her run on strongly in 1200 metres time and time again, and crudely extrapolated that out into an assumption that she’d be even better suited around the 1400 metre mark (hence the Stradbroke bet). When she did drop back to 1000 metres the first time, I thought her style was completely unsuited and worked around her. She provided an enduring lesson as to how sometimes a stronger pace/ shorter trip can be of greater benefit to some run-on types than a simple rise in distance.
Once Guy Walter had her ‘worked out’ as it were, she went on to win two Manikatos, run first and second in consecutive Lightnings and run first, second and third across three TJ Smiths. An impressive haul from what was tantamount to the ‘second half’ of her racing career, and one worthy of a ‘Sprinting Star’ status.
The stats
Overall record: 40 starts, 14 wins (3 x Group 1s, 3 x Group 2s), seven seconds, seven thirds, $2,296,440 prize money
2YO winter/ 3YO spring (1999): Six starts, two wins, one second, one third
3YO autumn (2000): Five starts, one win, one second, one third
4YO spring (2000): Two starts, two wins
4YO autumn/ winter (2001): Seven starts, three wins, two seconds
5YO spring (2001): Three starts, one third
5YO autumn/ winter (2002): Four starts, one win (1 x G1), one second, one third
6YO spring (2002): Four starts, three wins (1 x G1, 2 x G2)
6YO summer/ autumn (2003): Four starts, one win (1 x G2), one second, two thirds
7YO spring (2003): Four starts, one win (1 x G1), one second, one third
7YO summer (2004): One start
Turf Heroes series
Just in case you missed them the first time around, links to each of our Turf Heroes series are below:
(1) Super Impose, (2) Better Loosen Up, (3) Let’s Elope,(4) Octagonal, (5) Saintly, (6) Might and Power, (7) Sunline, (8) Northerly, (9) Lonhro, (10) Makybe Diva
