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PROUD SPELL FINISHED FOR 2008
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Proud Spell, a filly by Proud Citizen and who won the 2008 Kentucky Oaks (GI) in May, will not race anymore in 2008.

Trainer Larry Jones states that the filly is tired, after having raced against top fillies every month since February. He was planning on putting her in the Breeder's Cup Ladies Classic, but after her second place finish in the $750,000 Fitz Dixon Cotillion Stakes (GII) Jones decided that her racing career was coming to an end.

It is undecided whether the filly will race in 2009 or not. Jones says it all depends. He said in a speech, "We haven't made any decision yet on what we'll do with her. She's sound, but she is tired. We've run her every month since February against the best fillies in America, and she didn't lose the Cotillion because she was tired; I'm not using that as an excuse. But in each of her last few races, she's come out of it a little more tired, which is understandable, especially after such a grueling effort against Music Note. That was the premier race for our filly.

"The other riders gave Gabriel (Saez) a lesson in race riding in the Cotillion, as they did in the Mother Goose. The Eight Belles incident in the Derby really psyched him out in the Mother Goose. In both races, they had him bottled up, but he had a chance to shoot through each time. I told him before the Cotillion to make sure he was in front turning for home, because she's never been passed in the stretch. She has a heart that's unstoppable. But I'm going to stick with him; he's a great kid and I think he's going to be a Hall of Fame jockey one day. This is part of the learning process.

"A lot of people advised me to wrap up on her and send her home after the Alabama, but we took a shot, because she loves to run. That's why it's going to be hard for me not to run her next year. Right now, we're just going to wait and see. We're blessed to have her and blessed that she's sound. The immediate plan is to bring her home and turn her out and let her be a horse for a while. We did that right after the Breeder's Cup last year. Then, we'll take a bunch of X-rays and make sure there isn't a problem that we don't know about. If everything's okay, we might very well be running her next year."

Proud Spell has won seven of twelve career starts. She has earned over two million.
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