Wishing Well Stakes
6 1/2 furlongs Dirt Stake Purse $125.000 Fillies And Mares Four-Year-Old And Upward. At TP

Wishing Well Stakes started as a $50.000 stakes in 2010 and lasted three years. It returned in 2024 in its current form. Team 7 Illusions won last year with now-retired Aliens and returns this year with one of the favourites in Promote Violence. She will have to face closely matched Absent Friends from TwinTowersRacing’s barn. The truly difficult problem with handicapping a race like this is that so many of the lasses in here are at the beginning of their stakes career that it’s a bit foggy to get through. Here’s the field:

Horse                                  Owner                               Odds  SRF

Absent Friends                TwinTowersRacing            *9-5        90

Promote Violence               Team 7 Illusions                 2-1        95

Chase The Money                Avenue Z                            4-1        95

Chilly                                  La Canada Racehorses      5-1        93

Spelkenfelter Twin              Paradise Stable                10-1        93

Status                                 TwinTowersRacing             6-1        94

Counter Offensive              Spb Racing                          8-1        96

Liable                                 Threshold                          10-1        91

Sheza Creepy Witch           Babyhead                          20-1        92       

1  Promote Violence                  Team 7 Illusions               95

Promote Violence was closing like a freight train finishing just a half-length behind my top choice in the Dogwood and that just after a third in the legendary grade 1 Test at SAR where she registered a 98 SRF. On top of that, she just won a big-ticket allowance race at CD at today’s distance by a romping three-lengths last out. There’s not much to separate these two.

2  Absent Friends              TwinTowersRacing                 90

Absent Friends was bridesmaid in three very tough races before stepping up into the grade 1 La Brea Stakes at SA and displaying a very profound dislike for mud. I’m tossing that race out and saying that I was very impressed by the second place showing in the grade 3 Dogwood at CD. She’s one of the few in this race that have cashed a graded stakes check.

3   Counter Offensive                 Spb Racing                96

Night Rider Stables claimed Counter Offensive out of the auction for $10.000, which allowed him to run her in claiming races and pick up first and second place finish checks until she got claimed for $10.500. Nifty little four-race profit. Of course, if he had known she was a $100.000 stakes horse, he may have thought differently, as she proved two races later running third in the $100.000 Rosewater.

4   Liable                               Robeth                      91

Liable has been toying with the idea of these kinds of races for a while now and decided to get serious after an impressive win in a big-price allowance race at CD. That showing prompted her connections to make a big jump into the grade 1 La Brea Stakes at SA where she made a too late charge that had a good look about it.

5   Sheza Creepy Witch                  Babyhead                        92

Five-year-old Sheza Creepy Witch has been around quite a while. In fact, it didn’t really look like she was heading this way, but there’s a lot to be said about her. She’s won eight races. She and Spelkenfelter Twin share that distinction, although Sheza Creepy Witch managed the feat in 21 races to the Twin’s 24. More impressively, the witch has been in the money 17 of 24 times, but I think it’s her last 6 wins of 10 that is most impressive.

6   Chase The Money                    Avenue Z              95

Six-year-old Chase The Money seems to have the most recent stakes experience amongst these and comes off back-to-back odds-on beaten favourite runs in pricey stakes races. She earned that honor with a spectacular deep closing second in the grade 3 Princess Rooney at GP earning her a 100 SRF the race before those two. 10 of her 28 races have been stakes events and she is the richest horse in this race.

7   Chilly                    La Canada Racehorses              93

Chilly is an interesting filly. One of many lightly raced lasses in this field, she only raced twice at two and lost both. Opened her three-year-old campaign with two wins and a second for her breeder and was sold by Wood Duck Stables for $75.000. Her new owner saw her stakes potential and entered her in the $175.000 Monomoy Girl at CD a little too eagerly as she ran up the track. That was, however, her last time out of the money for the year, including a second in the $125.000 NY Stallion Series – Staten Island at AQU. So, a very nice chance here.

8   Spelkenfelter Twin                 Paradise Stable                 93

At seven years old with 34 races,

Spelkenfelter Twin should be thinking about heading off to the breeding shed, but she showed up fourth in the grade 3 Las Flores Stakes at SA in one more race in 2026, so here she is giving it another go, that is if Silky White can stay sober long enough to get her fit for the race. There was that incident last week in that Hollywood night club where so much alcohol was consumed that well… about twenty Paradise horses had to be scratched unfit and Silky went missing for a week. He did get a series of works out of her, including a 1:10 1/5, that makes her look sharp for this.

9   Status                         TwinTowersRacing              94

Status started off her career on the dirt until she was claimed from her breeder D J C Racing Stables for $50.000. After a couple of unsuccessful tries on dirt, TwinTowersRacing decided to try turf and got a win straight away, so there she stayed until two races ago when a switch back to dirt resulted in an allowance win followed by a third place in the $125.000 NY Stallion Series – Staten Island. Now she’s a dirt stakes horse.

Categories: STAKES ARTICLES, Ungraded