At the Spa
The name of this Outwork filly implies a possible link to New York's Saratoga Race Course. But this Cal-bred never left her home state as she made starts at Del Mar, Los Alamitos and Santa Anita in her brief career.
Most of At the Spa's on track appearances happened during the 2021 season. It began in early May when trainer Jorge Periban entered in a four and one-half furlong maiden special weight contest at Santa Anita. Favored at odds-on with Tyler Baze in the irons, At the Spa justified her price as she took the lead in the far turn and opened up in the stretch to win convincingly by several lengths, emulating her sire as a debut winner.
That first effort was enough to warrant a raise in class. At the tail end of the Santa Anita meet, At the Spa was ranked as one of the contenders in the five furlong Fasig-Tipton Debutante Stakes. Back on the main track and again teaming with Baze, At the Spa duked it out with Laurel Canyon for much of the way before pulling ahead with about a furlong to go. She made it two-for-two to start the summer, and another stakes race was in her future.
In early August, At the Spa showed up in the Del Mar starting gate as one of the main players in the California Thoroughbred Breeders' Association (CTBA) Stakes. Now asked to go an extra sixteenth of a mile compared to last time, At the Spa settled into a tracking trip this time around with the blinkers she wore from the beginning. When it was time for the stretch run, she and Baze got through along the rail and held off rivals Drizella and Madiha at the wire to pick up her third straight winner's photo.
That gutsy effort set up another boost in class. In fact, At the Spa was sent all the way to the Grade I level when she took on seven opponents in the Del Mar Debutante in early September with Umberto Rispoli taking over riding duties. The majority of horses At the Spa had faced to that point had been Cal-breds, and her two stakes scores were both black-type. In other words, this was a major test for At the Spa.
As it turned out, the winning streak did not reach four. Sent off as one of the Debutante's longshots, At the Spa tracked the leaders like she had at Del Mar before. But she started to lose contact with the lead pack going into the far turn and never rallied, finishing eighth to wrap up the summer portion of her campaign.
She would return to the races in December. Now at Los Alamitos, At the Spa went back to the black type stakes ranks when she started in the one mile Soviet Problem Stakes. After sprinting in every previous contest, At the Spa now had the opportunity to try routing. She also had Baze back in the irons, but horseplayers saw her as a longshot in this field of eight.
They were proven right. At the Spa stayed close to the leader early on as well as down the backstretch, but she had nothing left for the final stretch run and finished up sixth in her season finale. But the year proved successful, as At the Spa's success in the spring and summer was not lost on many in her home state. At the CTBA Awards ceremony honoring the 2021 champions, At the Spa was elected Champion Cal-bred Two Year Old Female for her work that season. Even with the pair of defeats, she still won.
After missing the entire winter, At the Spa was back at Santa Anita in the spring for the Evening Jewel Stakes, another black type event. She got to return to sprinting in this one, too. Teaming with Baze at six and one-half furlongs, this was a chance to get that form from the previous spring back.
Unfortunately, that ended up not being the case. Again seen as a longshot (this time at over 35-1), At the Spa was never really a factor in the Evening Jewel and finished eighth in what was her last start as a racehorse.
With a record of three wins in six starts, At the Spa's career was really a tale of two halves. The first half went perfectly, while the second half was the exact opposite. But although the back end of her time at the races did not match the early promise, At the Spa still found a way to be successful in competition, if only for a short while.