From Santa Anita Publicity
ARCADIA, Calif. (Feb. 26, 2016) — It’s approaching 30 years since Bill Spawr claimed Sensational Star for $32,000 with the hopes of turning him into a stakes winner.
Spawr wasn’t disappointed.
Sensational Star would go on to become a graded stakes winner under Spawr’s tutelage and retired with a career record of 39 starts, 13 wins, 11 seconds and $442,445 earned, this in the pre-inflation era.
Saturday’s $100,000 Sensational Star Stakes, for Golden State Series eligibles, is named for Spawr’s clever claim.
Spawr is known for his keen eye at the claim box. His most accomplished bargain was Exchange Rate, taken for $50,000. She went on to win three Grade I stakes and earn more than a million dollars.
Spawr, a native of Bell, California, who turned 76 last Dec. 13, had his day in the sun with 2011 Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Amazombie, who would go on to win an Eclipse Award.
Claimed in 1988, Sensational Star later won the Pat O’Brien Breeders’ Cup Handicap and the Bing Crosby Handicap at Del Mar and the Triple Bend Handicap at Hollywood Park.
Spawr still has framed winner’s circle photos of Sensational Star in his tack room.
“He was a classy horse who had some minor issues we were able to correct and it changed him into a real good horse,” Spawr said of Sensational Star, who will be remembered by Santa Anita tomorrow with the 19th running of the stakes named in his honor.
In Spawr’s tack room has a picture of Sensational Star winning the Triple Bend Stakes at Hollywood Park on May 6, 1989, when it offered a $75,000 purse. In the saddle was jockey Rafael Meza, older brother of Eddie Meza of the Race Track Chaplaincy of America, Southern California Council.
There also is a framed photo of Sensational Star after he won the Bing Crosby at Del Mar on July 29, 1990, when it was a Grade II race with a $100,000 purse.
“He was a nice looking horse,” Spawr said when asked why he claimed him. “He was routing and showed speed, so I thought he’d make a better sprinter, and he did.”