Trainer Hugh McMahon didn’t have grand designs when he and owner Larry Rabold dropped $16,000 to claim $16,000 Spencerian in September 2023.

“I just thought she was kind of at that level, but it was reasonable for us to claim because she had conditions, Maryland-bred,” he explained Saturday. “And that was that.”

The now-four-year-old filly has turned out to be significantly more than just a horse who could move through her lifetime conditions. She put the exclamation point on that with a two-length win in Saturday’s $75,000 Politely Stakes for Maryland-bred or -sired fillies and mares.

“More of a hope than an expectation,” McMahon said of whether he’d expected the Irish War Cry filly to run as well as she did.

It was her first career stakes victory and sixth win overall from 17 starts. She has earned in excess of $215,000.

McMahon ran Spencerian three times after claiming her, getting a win and two fifth-place finishes. Then he put her away for what turned out to be nearly 10 months.

“She was running for us like [she was compromised behind],” McMahon said. “We sent her away just for rest, and she got good. We didn’t do any real diagnostics, but we kind of thought it was a fractured hip.”

Rest proved to be just what the doctor ordered. She earned a then-career-top Beyer speed figure of 78 in a five-length victory over claiming rivals August 10 in her return to action and bettered that when winning a first-level allowance two starts later in her third consecutive victory.

She finished a game third in Maryland Million Distaff behind the hard-hitting Foxy Junior but then threw in a bit of a clunker when third at 1-2 odds in a second-level allowance at Laurel.

“She laid down for a week afterwards, and that’s when I sent her to Brenda Godfrey,” which is where she’d been in her length break spanning 2023-24, McMahon said. “She put her on the Aquatread for a couple of weeks until she said, ‘OK, come and pick her up. She’s back on the muscle again.’”

In the Politely, jockey Victor Carrasco had Spencerian up close in the early going, chasing the pace of Talk to the Judge. She seemed to be losing momentum rounding the turn, but then Carrasco got her through inside to prevail in 1:12.18 for six furlongs on a fast main track.

Bella Bettina rallied from well back to be second, while Bourbon Bon Bay finished third. Post time favorite Sheilah’s Warcloud was well back early and rallied only mildly to be sixth.

The Politely gave Carrasco two stakes wins on the day. Earlier he had piloted 6-5 favorite Celtic Contender to a 1 ½-length win in the Howard and Sondra Bender Memorial in 1:24.48 for seven furlongs.

Celtic Contender, trained by Hamilton Smith for Lewis Family Racing Stable, earned his second stakes win and fifth triumph from 12 outings.

Early on, Carrasco had his mount on the lead, but Carrasco ceded that early advantage to 34-1 outsider Freeze the Fire. Then he astutely reserved his horse’s energy until confronted in upper stretch by Circle P.

“I waited as long as I could, and as soon as I feel somebody trying to pass me at the top of the lane, when I get after him, he went from second to fifth and kicked on and got the job done,” Carrasco said.

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