Eclipse Award Champ Shisospicy Has Spiked A Fever And Will Miss Race In Saudi Arabia

[Wandering Eyes]

The Eclipse-Award winning female sprinter Shisospicy (Mitole) spiked a fever following a recent workout, which will cause her to miss the G2 1351 Turf Sprint scheduled for Feb. 14 in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian race was supposed to kick off her 2026 campaign, and Shisospicy was scheduled to leave for there on Feb. 2.

The Blood-Horse was the first to report the story.

“She spiked a little bit of a fever,” said Rich Mendez, who heads the Morplay Racing partnership that owns the 4-year-old filly. “If you look at her schedule, her works are always ten days out. She's not a filly that needs to breeze once a week. We had literally scheduled to breeze her the day before she was going to leave. When she spiked a little bit of a fever, that threw everything off schedule. Going across the world to Saudi and because of the long trip and everything, we needed her to be 1,000 percent, not just 100 percent. My concern, to be honest, is not the race. It is her. She comes first and foremost. I wanted to make sure that she was good. For now, we have decided not to go. She will be back on the worktab, hopefully, within the next week-and-a-half. From there, we'll figure out where to go. She will tell us. She's coming along fine. This is nothing crazy. It's not alarming. It's just that things happen.”

Mendez said that despite the fever, his star filly is acting and looking fine.

“Physically, she is great,” he said. “Even with the fever she is jumping around and eating all her food, so we know that she's good. It's just a matter of making sure she is 1,000 percent.”

Mendez said that he and trainer Jose D'Angelo will meet this weekend at Gulfstream Park and begin to formulate plans for her future racing schedule. Mendez added that a trip to Dubai for the GI Al Quoz Sprint is a possibility. That race will be run on March 28 at Meydan.

“Dubai is still a possibility,” Mendez said. “We'll also look at what they have at Keeneland. I can't stress enough that it's all about her. Wherever she starts next, she has to be 1,000 percent ready and not 100 percent ready.  We're optimistic. Missing Saudi Arabia doesn't matter. What matters is her health and making sure she's 1,000 percent for the 2026 season.”

Mendez said he now has a better understanding of what the connections of Sovereignty (Into Mischief) had to deal with when that colt was scratched from the 2025 GI Breeders' Cup Classic, also due to a fever.

“I know how they must have felt when they had to scratch Sovereignty before the Breeders' Cup Classic,” Mendez said. “I feel for them. You have everything ready and you have your plans. And then, literally, within a day, things can change. But that is the Thoroughbred business. We're happy with her and she's going to be fine.”

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