by Kimberly French, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Kimberly French

Louisville, KY — He’s pleased with her progress, but trainer Mark Ford admits he certainly isn’t the party responsible for All Spirit’s recent success.

“She’s not really ours and belongs to Judy and Tim Lanpher,” explained the Campbell Hall, New York resident. “They normally race at Tioga Downs, but they thought she was good enough to race in the Blue Chip Matchmaker series, so they sent her to us. We raced her three or four times and she’s done well, but it’s sort of a babysitting job until her owners get up here from Florida.”

Owned by Larry Lanpher, the 5-year-old daughter of Bettor’s Delight-Spirit of Ivy has earned $305,025 from 42 lifetime starts and has a career record of 14-6-8 with a lifetime mark of 1:52.1f established during her 4-year-old season. From five starts this year, all in the Blue Chip Matchmaker series at Yonkers, the mare has earned $54,800 with two victories, one second and one third place finish. That total is more than All Spirit’s total purse money won in last year’s campaign ($47,840) and her freshman year ($31,008). She did bank $171,377 as a 3-year-old.

Mike Lizzi photo

All Spirit posted two wins in the Blue Chip Matchmaker legs and wound up second in the series with 262 points.

In her last two starts, the mare captured $40,000 legs of the Blue Chip Matchmaker series and finished second in the series standings behind Ginger And Fred with 262 total points scored. All Spirit will leave from post position six in Saturday evening’s $301,000 series final, which is carded as race six with an 8:50 p.m. post time.

“She didn’t draw the greatest for the final, but I do have high hopes for her,” Ford said. “She doesn’t ship very well and had some trouble getting acclimated to the weather up here after coming up from Florida. She seems to be doing better now and I think if she minds her manners in the final, she’ll have a shot. Like with anything else, we’ll just have to see how it shakes out.”

Before All Spirit came to his barn, Ford had raced against her on the New York Sire Stakes circuit when the mare was a 2- and 3-year-old, but he still really didn’t know what she was all about.

“She’s a very funny horse to get along with and she’s not sure-footed,” he said. “She’ll run at the drop of a hat and when she was in the Sire Stakes, she made breaks at inopportune times. She’s not real quick or handy, so you have to be really careful with her and not very aggressive; but she is a fast mare.”

Ford isn’t exactly sure what the future holds for All Spirit.

“Last year she raced against Open mares and that can be tough, but she came back very well this year,” he said. “We have raced her pretty conservatively and I’m not real sure what her owners are going to do with her. I told them to see how she gets through the series and then we will go from there. You might see her stick around with us for a little while and I think she could make a really nice living at Yonkers if that’s what they decide they would like to do with her.”

$301,000 Blue Chip Matchmaker Series Final
PP-Horse-Driver-Trainer-Line
1-Ginger And Fred-Yannick Gingras-Ron Burke-8-5
2-Save My Shark-Jim Pantaleano-Tony Alagna-6-1
3-Hula’s Z Tam-Patrick Lachance-Patrick Lachance-6-1
4-Tomorrowpan-Daniel Dube-Casie Coleman-4-1
5-Breakheart Pass-Tim Tetrick-Ron Burke-8-5
6-All Spirit-George Brennan-Mark Ford-5-1
7-Giveittoemstaight-Jason Bartlett-Lou Pena-12-1
8-Symphony In Motion-David Miller-Mark Harder-15-1