2003 Sunshine Millions

Saturday, January 25, 2003

Sunshine Millions Next for Spinelessjellyfish

ARCADIA, Calif. (Jan. 6, 2003) -- Having ended a 16-month, 13-race losing streak Sunday, Spinelessjellyfish is ready to take on a bigger assignment: The $500,000 Barretts/CTBA Turf on Sunshine Millions day on Jan. 25.

The 1 1/8-mile grass race is one of the four Sunshine Millions events to be run at Santa Anita, where the dark bay 7-year-old son of 1996 Breeders’ Cup Classic champion Skywalker has done some of his best work during a 34-race career.

Among the other likely runners in the Sunshine Millions are Cal-bred Turkish Prize, third in the Sensationl Star, and Florida-bred Point Prince, owned by Team Valor, who scored an upset in the Grade II Appleton Handicap at Gulfstream Park on Saturday.

Spinelessjellyfish boosted his career bankroll to $807,533 by taking down the winner’s share of $64,980 in the Sensational Star Stakes at the Arcadia track on Sunday. He covered about 6 ½ furlongs down the hillside turf course in stakes record tine of 1:11.84 to become the first two-time winner of the Sensational Star. He also won the race in 1999.

Teaming with rider Julie Krone for the first time, Spinelessjellyfish achieved his first victory since Sept. 3, 2001, when he dead-heated for first in the California Turf Championship Handicap at Bay Meadows. Russell Baze was his jockey that day. He also became the first horse trained and ridden by women to win a Santa Anita stakes.

“I’m just so proud of this horse,” trainer Jenine Sahadi said after Spinelessjellyfish won for the 10th time. “He’s grinded out a lot of money the hard way. He’s brought back a lotof checks by hitting the board in stakes races.”

Spinelessjellyfish, bred by Cardiff Farm Management out of the Desert Wine mare Silky Sand Sammy, was his own worst enemy during his long absence from the winner’s circle, Sahadi said of the horse.

“I’ve had him since he was two and now he’s seven and I’m proud of that, but it seemed like he was getting more bored and smarter.”
Krone was the difference-maker, Sahadi said.

“It took Chris McCarron (his former rider) to get the lay of the land with him,” said the trainer. “He’s a very funny horse to ride, but Julie did a great job. The horse settled nice for her and he wasn’t rank and silly.”

Said Chris Van der Lohe, the farm manager at Cardiff Stud, where Spinelessjellyish was foaled, “He’s always been competitive and it looks like he’s on his game again. We’d like to get him back here for his stud career. Before that, though, maybe he can reach a million dollars in purse money.”

-- Larry Bortstein