Grade I, $600,000 Alabama Stakes
1 1/4m Saratoga
In a race that will be long remembered by all who witnessed it, Proud Spell outgamed the multiple Grade I winner Music Note to the wire in an epic renewel of the historic GI Alabama Stakes at Saratoga. After putting away Godolphin’s Little Belle, herself a GI winner, in upper stretch, Proud Spell braced for the challenge of the second Godolphin color-bearer Music Note, who was coming off a resounding 11 length win in the GI CCA Oaks, and simply outgutted that filly to the wire. The stretch run essentially marked a match race between the two fillies nearly universally credited as the top 3-year-old fillies in the country, and the result has firmly established Proud Spell as this nation’s top sophomore filly in training. The win further validates sire Proud Citizen’s place as one of the world’s hottest young stallions, and helped further distance himself from his sophomore sire crop rivals who now stand more than $500,000 behind him on the second crop sire list.
A homebred for Airdrie Stud, the farm would like to send our deepest gratitude to trainer Larry Jones and his entire team as well as to jockey Gabriel Saez for giving us the memories of a lifetime with this very special filly.
