Ascot prepares Shisospicy for KY Downs’ Music City
Published 5:53 pm Tuesday, September 2, 2025
- Shisospicy trains Tuesday morning with exercise rider Neftaly Perez at Kentucky Downs. (GRACE CLARK-SWEET)
FRANKLIN — Trainer Jose D’Angelo brings another top sprinter to Kentucky Downs for their first start since an overseas adventure, with Morplay Racing and Qatar Racing’s Shisospicy in Saturday’s $2 million AGS Music City for 3-year-old fillies competing at 6 1/2 furlongs on grass.
D’Angelo is just hoping for better racing luck than was experienced this past Saturday by Howard Wolowitz, who encountered all kinds of trouble before pulling within a half-length of front-running victor Bear River in the $2 million The Mint Kentucky Turf Sprint (G2).
The Grade 2 Music City is one of six stakes worth at least $2 million for Kentucky-breds (and with a base purse of at least $1 million for other horses) on Saturday’s FanDuel TV U.S. Open Turf Championships program over Kentucky Downs’ European-style course.
Shisospicy last ran at Royal Ascot in a Group 1 stakes against males on June 20, while Howard Wolowitz was returning to the races off a much longer layoff since he ran in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 22. Shisospicy led with a furlong to go before weakening to 15th in the 21-horse field, beaten by a total of 7 3/4 lengths.
“She’s doing great,” D’Angelo said after Shisospicy galloped at Kentucky Downs Tuesday morning. “We gave her enough time to recover after her trip. Now we’re ready for a new challenge for her. She knows a little bit now about hills and ups and downs that she ran on at Ascot. She has enough time here preparing and galloping for the race. She likes the grass, and she looks good training here. I think that’s a key.”
Before going to England, Shisospicy went 3 for 3 in sprint stakes on turf: An entry-level allowance at Gulfstream, Keeneland’s $300,000 Limestone and Churchill Downs’ Grade 3 Mamzelle. That day she beat an excellent filly in last year’s $1 million Untapable winner Kilwin, who also will be among the Music City favorites. Kilwin will return to turf after two dirt victories, including Saratoga’s Grade 1 Test.
Shisospicy started out on dirt, winning her debut by 16 lengths before a third and a second in stakes. Very good on the main track, she’s been exceptional on grass. D’Angelo hopes to use the Music City as a launching pad to the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, a field that will be dominated by older males, at five-eighths of a mile at Del Mar.
D’Angelo also has Cloe in the Music City’s overflow field. That filly was a good fourth in Saratoga’s Grade 3 Coronation Cup after a second in the off-the-turf Soaring Softly. Cloe had raced once on synthetic and once on dirt before she was sent to D’Angelo, who immediately put her on grass and won a Gulfstream Park stakes, followed by a third in Santa Anita’s Grade 3 Señorita won by Music City contender Jungle Peace.
“It’s a strong field,” D’Angelo said of the Music City. “The best 3-year-old filly turf sprinters in the country, some fillies that were running long and now are cutting back in distance. We have Cloe, who is doing excellent and was very unlucky in her races. We took off the blinkers to try to get her to relax a little bit. Cloe drew post position 1; Shisospicy No. 10. We just have to get lucky on Saturday…. I feel like we’ve great chances with both of the fillies.”
Meanwhile, D’Angelo said Howard Wolowitz — winner of last year’s Grade 1 Franklin-Simpson at Kentucky Downs — came out of the six-furlong Kentucky Turf Sprint in good order and will run back in Keeneland’s Grade 1 Coolmore Turf Mile, a “Win and You’re In” Challenge Series race for the Breeders’ Cup Mile on grass.
“He was unlucky, but I’m very happy and proud of him,” D’Angelo said. “It’s not easy to go to the desert and back and in his comeback race to lose by a head. He was the best horse in the race. The post position (2) wasn’t good for him. But he tried and showed up and had a nice gallop out. Now I’ll stretch him out at Keeneland in the Coolmore and hope to go to the Breeders’ Cup. He’s never run more than 6 1/2 furlongs. But the way he moves on the racetrack makes me think that we can go there.”