Spectator first stakes winner for Jimmy Creed

Spectator turned in a sparkling performance in Saturday’s $200,000 Sorrento S. (G2) at Del Mar, winning the 6 ½-furlong contest for 2-year-old fillies by 5 ¼-lengths to become Jimmy Creed’s first stakes winner.

Jimmy Creed leads all First-Crop Sires of 2017 by stakes horses with four to date, and ranks third on the list by both earnings $349,180, and individual winners, with seven.

Spectator had won her June 23 debut at Santa Anita by the same 5 ¼-lengths and was on her toes as she loaded into the gate for the Sorrento. She came out running at the start, stride-for-stride with even-money favorite Surrender Now through a very quick first quarter-mile in :21.93.

With three furlongs to run, Surrender Now began to quickly retreat, and Spectator took over, with Terra’s Angel just to her outside. That duo was together for less than a furlong before Spectator suddenly pulled away in upper stretch, pouring it on through the final furlong to stop the timer in 1:17.66.

“After she broke her maiden the way she did, we just kind of let her grow up these past few weeks,” trainer Phil D’Amato said.
“This (race) has been on the radar from the get-go, and we just let her mature and she sure did. She’s still trying to figure it out in some ways. She’s just a bunch of raw talent and she’s getting better and better.”

Spectator was bred in Kentucky by his owners Rick and Sharon Waller. “As small breeders we always try to come up with the best horse we can when we’re planning a breeding,” Mr. Waller said. With two wins in two starts, Spectator has earned $152,400.

D’Amato didn’t specify a next start for Spectator, but the $300,000 Del Mar Debutante (G1) on Sept. 2 looms as a logical spot.