A winning time of 1:22.72 made this the 4th fastest running of the Spinaway Stakes this century and Summer Starlet was certainly aided by some fast early fractions for the early leaders, who covered the opening quarter of a mile in 22.29s. Settling a few lengths behind that pace, Summer Starlet swung 4 wide as they came out of the bottom turn and once in the clear, she readily went past the rivals in front of her with the fastest split in each of the final 3 furlongs. As our infographic above shows, Summer Starlet was dominant in the latter stages of the race and both her top speed and run-out speed figures were above the expected average figures for a winner of this race from the TPD database. More than half a second ahead by the time they crossed the line, Summer Starlet was the only filly in the race to record an average stride length above 25 ft (25.33 ft) and was nearly a foot longer than any of her 6 rivals (next longest Bandmaster, 24.38 ft) and having spent some time looking at the data from the Spinaway Stakes, it is very hard to make a case for this form being reversed. That’s especially true when we consider that Summer Starlet was making only her 2nd start on the track. 

The Spinaway Stakes is part of the “Win and You’re In” series for the Breeders’ Cup and on this evidence, she is going to be one of the main contenders for the Breeders’ Juvenile Fillies’ at Keeneland at the end of next month. Asmussen’s post-race comments that “I’m unbelievably comfortable with who she is and I don’t think her (distance) window is small, I think in time she will fill out that beautiful frame of hers” would suggest that she is likely to head to the race (Source: BloodHorse). An average speed figure of 38.08 mph from the Spinaway Stakes would suggest that she will prove to be more than competitive at Keeneland and if she improves again, that may well be enough to bring her connections Breeders’ Cup success.