Greenwood Cup (Grade 3)- $200.000 Purse
PRX- For Three Year Olds and Upward
One Mile and One Half on the Dirt
September 20, 2025

The stage seemed to be set in the Greenwood Cup for Spankersville to get his first win since April, but someone forget to tell Bears Stable and El Gran Cambio. The gelding seems to be at his best the longer that the races get, and at a mile and a half, he was up to the challenge to take on the reigning BC Champion. Not only did El Gran Cambio pick up the win, but he would do so by a commanding two lengths. Impressive, to say the least, and it will be interesting to see where he ends up racing next. For Bears Stable, it is his first Greenwood Cup win, and it is the second for jockey Jam Rodriguez, who also won last year with Big Bang Boom. Congratulations to them! The time of the win was 2:29.11, which is about midpack overall when looking at previous winning times. Let’s take a look at how it happened:

(½ Mile- :49.10)- Rainbow Reign, trained by Aer Stables, is the early leader of the race, taking them around the opening turn and down the front stretch for the first time. They are lined up in single file formation behind him, with The Sidley Stud’s Spankersville a length and a half back in second. It’s the same distance to the Team 7 Illusions- trained Fire Teeth in the third spot, about two to Black N Gold Stable’s Bitcoin Boom in fourth. Next in line is Merky One, for Night Rider Stables, and content to trail the field early on is the race’s eventual winner from Bears Stable, El Gran Cambio.

(3/4 Mile- 1:14.09)- The race reaches its halfway point with not much changing. Rainbow Reign still is the leader, and is a length ahead of Spankersville. Fire Teeth is two lengths behind that one, and it’s another two to Bitcoin Boom. There is one pass, and that would be El Gran Cambio, who goes to the outside of Merky One to move into fifth, but he still has to make up eight or so lengths on the leader.

(Top of The Stretch, 1.7F To Go)- After completing the backstretch trip, and moving to the top of the final turn, Spankersville looked to make his move on Rainbow Reign, pulling up right alongside him. Fire Teeth would move to the third lane and would only be about a length behind them. However, making up a lot of ground at this point was El Gran Cambio, now being only about four lengths back, as he passes Bitcoin Boom with his sights set on doing much more in the turn. While many eyes were probably on Spankersville taking over the top spot within the turn, El Gran Cambio continued to close in on the leaders, and by the time they hit the top of the stretch, he was there, now in second, and only a length behind. At this point, he had gained so much ground on Spankersville, it didn’t seem like even a BC Classic champion would continue to have the answer.

(Finish- 2:29.11)- Spankersville, as we should expect, was gritty early in the stretch, but El Gran Cambio was simply too much for him. They were even with about a furlong to go, and from that point, El Gran Cambio would cruise on by, drawing away from the competition to pick up the biggest win of his career, considering who he knocked off. Spankersville is second best, with Merky One coming on late to be third. Bitcoin Boom is the best of the rest, topping Fire Teeth and an exhausted Rainbow Reign. Sadly, we have just received news that Rainbow Reign will not make it back to the farm.

About The Winner- El Gran Cambio, trained by Bears Stable, and ridden to victory by Jam Rodriguez, is a five-year-old gelding by Inicnam and is out of Sneaky Fuego. He was bred in California by Lazy Eye as a second quarter two-year-old, and was acquired by Bears Stable with a $10.000 claim in August 2024. Congratulations to the connections! The win is his ninth in 24 starts and his third stake win, all of which are graded. His career earnings are now $454.100.

Track: Fast
Time: :49  1:14  2:04³  2:29

$2 Mutuel Prices:

$1 Exacta: 5 – 1 Paid 5.90
$1 Trifecta: 5 – 1 – 3 Paid 33.90

Scratched: None

— NS

Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES