2025 Spinster Stakes Preview

Key takeaways:

• The Spinster Stakes is Keeneland’s marquee filly and mare route, offering a Win and You’re In berth to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
• Recent winners like Idiomatic and Malathaat have parlayed Spinster victories into championship seasons.
• Thorpedo Anna draws perfectly outside, owns a flawless 1 1/8-mile record, and looks poised to control her trip.
• Scylla returns to two turns, her preferred game, and looms as the main danger with proven class at the distance.
• Nitrogen, fresh off her Alabama win, steps up against older foes and has upside if she matches that Saratoga form.

The Grade 1, $650,000 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes is Sunday’s featured race at Keeneland. The 1 ⅛-mile race on the Keeneland main track is the early-October feature for the filly and mare dirt route division, and the perennial feature on Sunday of the opening weekend of the fall meet. In addition to the massive purse, the race also offers the winner an automatic bid to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on November 1 at Del Mar as part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series.

The 2025 edition of the Spinster drew a field short on quantity but replete with quality. The best older female dirt horse, reigning Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna, clashes with the leading sophomore filly in North America, Nitrogen. Multiple graded-stakes winner Scylla, Keeneland graded-stakes winner Gin Gin, and the up-and-coming Chilled complete the group.

Spinster Stakes winners often make a major impact at the Breeders’ Cup World Championships. Two of the last three Breeders’ Cup Distaff winners prepared in the Spinster: Idiomatic in 2023 and Malathaat in 2022. Others to sweep the double include Blue Prize (2019), Inside Information (1995), Bayakoa (1989, 1990), Sacahuista (1987), and the very first Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner, Princess Rooney (1984).

Spinster Stakes Information

• Race Date: Sunday, October 5
• Track: Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky
• Post Time: 5:16 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time
• Distance: 1 ⅛ miles on the dirt
• Age/Sex: three-year-olds and up, fillies and mares
• Where to Watch: FanDuel TV
• Where to Bet: FanDuel Racing

2025 Spinster Stakes Draw and Odds

These are the entrants for the 2025 Spinster, including post positions, trainers, jockeys, and morning-line odds.

Spinster Stakes Prep Race Results

All five runners in the Spinster come out of different races, with four of them coming out of graded-stakes company.

Two runners come out of Grade 1 wins. Thorpedo Anna won by a hard-fought nose over Dorth Vader in the Personal Ensign on August 23 at Saratoga Race Course. Nitrogen faced fellow sophomores in the Alabama (G1) at the Spa on August 16, the first dirt race of her career that wasn’t a washed-off turf race. She won by a confident 1 ½ lengths over Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Good Cheer.

Scylla also comes out of a top-level race, the Ballerina (G1) at Saratoga on August 23. She set the pace in that seven-furlong sprint, but was overhauled in the lane and settled for second, two lengths behind Hope Road.

Gin Gin has freshened up since a fourth-place finish in the Fleur de Lis (G2) on June 28 at Churchill Downs. She tracked the early pace, but flattened out and finished 9 ½ lengths behind Thorpedo Anna, who she will face again in the Spinster.

The only horse coming out of allowance company is Chilled, who tried a third-level turf mile at Kentucky Downs on September 7. She chased midfield through the early stages, but emptied out to finish a well-beaten ninth of 11.

2025 Spinster Stakes Contenders

This is the field for the 2025 Spinster, in order of each horse’s post position.

1. Chilled: The only horse in the field without a graded-stakes win on her resume, Chilled has a lot to prove. Even if you toss her last—it was a turf race, after all—it’s hard not to conclude that she needs the rest of the field to misfire. Her best aspect is that she likes Keeneland, though she is winless in five starts over the course, but she has hit the board in four of five, and she ran one of her best races this spring when second in a second-level allowance over the course. However, she is now stepping up to face the leading lights of her division, and being a credible allowance horse who likes Keeneland won’t be enough.
2. Scylla: She has gone through phases in her career, switching between routes and sprints. After a year of sprinting, during which she never finished out of the superfecta in six starts but didn’t win any of them, Bill Mott is stretching Scylla back out to two turns. That seems like a wise move: she won the Fleur de Lis (G2) in her only start so far at 1 ⅛ miles, and being a full sister to the long-winded Tacitus, it doesn’t seem like a fluke that she did so. She seemed like a good up-and-coming route horse before being cut back to sprints last summer, and even though she hasn’t won sprinting, she has been consistently competitive enough to suggest that she hasn’t lost a step at age five. With good Keeneland form and tactical versatility, Scylla has a lot going for her here.
3. Nitrogen: Last year, she was a hard-trying maiden: twice Grade 1-placed, a Canada champion, but not yet a winner. This year, she got hot: she is a nose shy of perfect in seven starts this year. And, though most of her starts have come on the lawn, a laugher of a victory in the off-turf Wonder Again (G3) gave Mark Casse ideas to put her on the dirt—a great idea, as it turned out, as she stalked, pounced, and beat the Kentucky Oaks winner in the Alabama. Waters get deeper here for the top sophomore filly in the country, as she faces older company for the first time. But, she always seems to run to her company, and her best races fit right in speed-wise with these good older horses.
4. Gin Gin: Gin Gin is already a graded-stakes winner over the Keeneland main track, as she upset the Doubledogdare (G3) in April, her first start since moving from the Brad Cox barn to Brendan Walsh’s shedrow. She was a good second next out in the Shawnee (G3) at Churchill Downs, though came up empty in the Fleur De Lis and was freshened up three months before this return. That’s not a bad sign: after all, she won the Doubledogdare first off a three-month break after a flat effort. She will need her best to be a factor, but she has good tactical speed, and if she finds the form she had this spring, she fits.
5. Thorpedo Anna: Thorpedo Anna could not have drawn better in this race: the outside post of just five. She has the early speed to be involved from the get-go, and she is fast enough to set the fractions but versatile enough to hound the leaders and then take over if she needs—a trip she may have to work out, with stretch-out sprinter Scylla in the field. She won her only start at Keeneland, she is a perfect six-for-six at 1 ⅛ miles, and even though she doesn’t have her usual jockey, Brian Hernandez, Jr., due to injury, she gets a more than able replacement for the day in Flavien Prat. She is not only the best-proven horse in the race but also the one most likely to get a sweet trip, and that could spell trouble for her foes, as high-quality as those foes may be.

Spinster Stakes: 3 Best Bets

These are the three best bets in the 2025 Spinster Stakes at Keeneland:

1. Thorpedo Anna (8-5)

Short fields often come down to trip. When the best horse is likely to get the best trip, the rest of the runners could be set for an uphill battle. And, that’s the situation here in the Spinster Stakes. Thorpedo Anna is drawn to the outside, so she should get a clean break. She is very fast early and could set the pace if need be, but also should be able to get a pressing trip if someone else—Scylla, most likely—carves out the early fractions. The ability to be forward but tactical is a recipe for success.

Of course, the price won’t be big: she’s going to be favored. But, she looks like a winner: this looks like a good spot to lean on this consistent filly, a stone-cold 1 ⅛-mile horse, and find prices in multi-race sequences to play through the Spinster instead of grasping at gossamer threads of reasons someone else will win the Spinster.

2. Scylla (4-1)

For anyone dead-set on opposing Thorpedo Anna, or looking to play a cold exacta or a small back-up ticket, Scylla has the most upside of the rest. This looks like a belated return to what Scylla should have been doing all along: two-turn races. She was coming into her own last spring and early summer, winning the 1 1/16-mile Shawnee (G3) and the 1 ⅛-mile Fleur de Lis, and then finishing a credible enough second behind Bob Baffert trainee Adare Manor in the Clement Hirsch (G1), on Adare Manor’s home course. But then, Bill Mott shortened her up for six starts in a row. She was good, missing by only a length in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint last fall. But, she didn’t win any of those sprints.

Finally, she stretches back out for this. She stretches all the way back out to 1 ⅛ miles. And, she gets a switch to Junior Alvarado in the irons—Mott’s top rider. The pace should be interesting here: she doesn’t always make the lead, but she set the early fractions last out, going seven furlongs, meaning she may well try to do that again over this longer trip. Holding off Thorpedo Anna in the end will be a tough ask, but returning to what she probably should have been doing all along, she has the most upside of anyone else in the field.

3. Nitrogen (5-2)

Trying older foes for the first time is never an easy ask, especially older foes of this quality. But, a good horse has to take that step up sometime, and trainer Mark Casse is never afraid to take a shot with a good horse. He did that with Nitrogen last out in the Alabama—she was a proven turf horse, but her only dirt try before the Alabama was a paid workout over the slop against a couple of turf fillies. The gambit paid off: Nitrogen never looked like a loser even though she was facing proven dirt horses, and she earned her first career Grade 1 win.

She should be fit on the turn back in trip, from the 1 ¼-mile distance of the Alabama back to the 1 ⅛ miles of the Spinster Stakes. But, she’ll be facing even tougher company than she did last out against her own age group, and she’ll have to come back with another top or near-top effort. That’s not impossible, of course, but from a price standpoint? She’ll probably be the second choice, as she is the “now” horse off of that Alabama win. She still has upside, and a second- or third-place finish even seems likely, but she won’t be quite as good a bet as Scylla for anyone intent on trying to beat Thorpedo Anna.

2025 Spinster Stakes FAQ

Q: When and where is the Spinster?

A: The Spinster happens Sunday, September 5, at 5:16 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky. The race is the ninth of 10 on the card, and the second of three stakes races for the day.

Q: Which trainer has the most wins in the Spinster?

A: Todd Pletcher leads all trainers with five victories in the Spinster, most recently with Malathaat in 2022. He does not have an entrant in the race in 2025. Two trainers with horses this year have won twice: Bill Mott won with Mushka in 2009 and Emollient in 2013, while Kenny McPeek won in both 2002 and 2003 with Take Charge Lady. Mott has Scylla in 2025, while McPeek brings Thorpedo Anna.

Q: Who is the favorite for the Spinster?

A: Thorpedo Anna is the 8-5 morning-line favorite and may be shorter than that come post time: not only is she a fan favorite, but she is the reigning horse of the year, and she comes into the race off of victories in the Fleur de Lis (G3) and the Personal Ensign (G1).

Q: Who is the best Spinster jockey?

A: Jockeys Pat Day and Laffit Pincay, Jr. lead all riders with five wins in the Spinster each. However, both are now retired. Among jockeys riding in the 2025 Spinster, John Velazquez leads with two wins, with In Lingerie in 2012 and Malathaat in 2022. He rides Chilled this year.

Q: Who won the Spinster in 2024?

A: Idiomatic, who won for trainer Brad Cox, jockey Florent Geroux, and title sponsor Juddmonte Farms in 2023, returned for another victory in the Spinster in 2024 for what turned out to be the final race of her career. Neither Cox nor Geroux returns to the Spinster in 2025, though Juddmonte Farms owns Scylla, who is trained by Bill Mott and ridden by Junior Alvarado.

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