Mitole ‘Rising Star’ Shisospicy wires field in $300,000 Limestone S.

Shisospicy sprinted to a front-running victory in the $300,000 Limestone S. April 11 at Keeneland to give the 3-year-old daughter of Mitole her first stakes win.

The gray/roan filly is Mitole’s fourth stakes winner this year and his 12^th lifetime. Mitole was the champion First-Crop sire of 2023 and is this year’s leading Third-Crop sire by graded stakes winners.

Shisospicy, who had placed twice in main track stakes over the winter, was making her first turf stakes start in Friday’s 5 ½-furlong contest. She broke very well and took the lead a few jumps out of the gate and led through a very fast opening quarter-mile of :21.46. With stakes winner Dreamaway pushing her the entire trip, Shisospicy opened up by two lengths at the top of the stretch, then strided out to hold off the runner-up by nearly a length in 1:03.94 on the good turf.

“She broke fast out of there and she’s got speed, so I tried to relax and enjoy the time out there when she was on the lead,” the winning rider Irad Ortiz, Jr. said. “I bided my time, and turning for home she gave me a good turn of foot to the end. They were coming but she held on.”

Shisospicy has a stellar record of 3-1-1 in five starts and earnings of $285,550 for owner Morplay Racing LLC. She earned her TDN Rising Star for her 16-length debut maiden special weight win last October.

Bred by Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt, Shisospicy is the second foal out of the Into Mischief mare Mischief Galore, who has a 2-year-old and yearling by Spendthrift First-Crop sire Yaupon.