Counting Stars looks to bounce back from her last start and bolster her championship credentials Sunday in the $650,000 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes (G1) at Keeneland, one of the calendar’s most prestigious races for fillies and mares.
Already a two-time Grade 1 winner and one of the leading 3-year-old fillies in the country, she faces older rivals for the first time. She is the lone sophomore in a field reduced to 4 with the expected scratch of Regaled. She will reunite Irad Ortiz Jr., the pilot in her Grade 1 wins at Saratoga in the Acorn and Coaching Club American Oaks. The Spinster offers a “Win and You’re In” berth to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1).
Trainer Mark Casse will be seeking a measure of redemption after eventual champion 3-year-old filly Nitrogen finished second by a head to Gin Gin in last year’s Spinster. Counting Stars also has a chance to end a lengthy drought for her age group: 3-year-old fillies have won five editions since 2000, most recently Emollient on Keeneland’s synthetic surface in 2013. Take Charge Lady in 2002 was the most recent sophomore to win the race on dirt.
The Spinster is scheduled for 5:45 p.m. ET Sunday.
Update on Irad Ortiz Jr.’s return from foot fractures
