Winner No. 18 gets the 'Jump' on 'em

Spring Jump burst first from the gate and was never headed Thursday night, winning a maiden special weight at Penn National to become the 18th of my 187 juvenile sales tips this year to break maiden.

Luis Belmonte got the second-out filly to break sharply from the 4-hole and she set fractions of 22.31 and 45.99, pressed all the way by the trio of Ellis Island (who faded to last), Her Smile (who stayed with Spring Jump to the end, losing by just a neck) and odds-on favorite Caribbean Lady, who weakened to finish fourth by a neck to Las Mercedes. Final time for five furlongs on a fast dirt track was 58.44. (Video available from The Blood-Horse.)

Spring Jump was the second-longest shot in the six-horse field and paid $18.80 to win. She debuted with a fourth place finish of five fillies (after three scratches) at Penn National on July 29, but her chances were compromised that night by being fractious at the gate and getting swept five-wide on the turn. Las Mercedes was third in that race, as well. Better-behaved and setting the pace Thursday night, Spring Jump dictated a different outcome this time.

Spring Jump (Jump Start-Meg's Answer, by West Acre) was bred in Florida by Jeanne H. Cutrona & Jerry M. Cutrona Sr. She is owned by Dorado Circle Stables LLC, which bought her for just $19,000 as Hip 234 from Fasig-Tipton's Midlantic Sale of 2-year-olds in training in Timonium, Md. Flint Stites is her trainer.

The filly garnered $18,600 for her victory, bumping her earnings total from two races to $20,460, already more than her purchase price.

At EASMAY, I ranked her as a "Priority 2" on a list of 48 horses as I worked the sale for a client in search of a bargain runner. In detailing my work from that sale on this blog, I didn't like the fact that she's the first foal from an unraced dam, who was by a fairly modest sire. But second dam Spring Hill Answer was a durable race mare who won 11 times in modest company and later produced three stakes horses, including MAGNUS ONE and SNAPPY ANSWER.

I summarized: "This filly was among the tallest I screened, had a nice head and eye, a good shoulder, breezed 11-flat (which for that sale was decent), and already has her gate card."

She looked the part of a winner to me in May, and by August, she is one.

My 187 spring sales selections now have a record of 19-16-12 from 112 starts (17 percent wins, 42 percent in the money) and have earned $591,917, for $5,285 per start.

Track the performance of those selections, and a handful of horses whose purchases I panned (usually more on price than the horse itself), at this prior post.