- DON’T SWEAR DAVE STRETCHES OUT IN PASADENA
- CE CE IS A DESERVING WINNER OF ECLIPSE AWARD
- GRADE I WINNER HIT THE ROAD BEING FRESHENED
- MERNEITH GETS 108 BEYER FOR SANTA MONICA WIN
- SPECIAL EARLY FIRST POST TIME OF 11 A.M. SUNDAY
O’NEILL, REDDAMS JOIN FORCES IN PASADENA
Doug O’Neill is believed to have had a personal record of nine horses nominated to next Saturday’s $100,000 Pasadena Stakes, but plans to run only one, Don’t Swear Dave, in the one-mile turf race for three-year-olds.
A bay son of Connect owned by principal client J. Paul Reddam, the bay colt rallied to finish an eventful second in the grassy Baffle Stakes at 6 ½ furlongs on Jan. 30, and his style seems well suited to a mile.
“I think he’s pretty versatile long or short but the mile shouldn’t hurt him,” O’Neill said. “It does seem like he’s found a good home on the turf, and if he improves from his Baffle effort he’s got a good chance.”
O’Neill and Reddam have had a successful association dating back prior to 2012 when they won the Kentucky Derby with I’ll Have Another, and it continues to prosper.
“It’s great to be able to work for Paul and (his wife) Zillah,” said O’Neill, who also won the 2016 Kentucky Derby for them with Nyquist. ‘They’re awesome people who love their horses.
“They’re great to train for so it’s a real blessing.”
ECLIPSE AWARD DESERVING FOR TEAM CE CE
Fulfillment, pride and respect, part and parcel of any Eclipse Award, are certainly very much in evidence at the Michael McCarthy barn, home of recently crowned Eclipse Champion Female Sprinter Ce Ce who is owned by her breeder, Bo Hirsch.
The chestnut daughter of Elusive Quality, out of Hirsch’s Grade I winning Miss Houdini, became a veritable overnight sensation last summer, winning the Grade II Princess Rooney and the Grade III Chillingworth before capping her season with a 6-1 upset in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint on Nov. 5.
Ce Ce won by 2 ¼ lengths while wide under Victor Espinoza, miraculously still riding as he nears his 50th birthday on May 23, courageously overcoming a severe neck injury in a training spill at Del Mar in 2018 that sidelined him for seven months and not only threatened his riding career, but his ability to walk.
“Victor’s determination and the way he fits Ce Ce is a testament to him,’ McCarthy said. “He’s a Hall of Famer and he’s put some Hall of Fame rides on her.
“When I give him a leg up on her, I feel very confident.”
The Breeders’ Cup triumph thrust Ce Ce among the three Eclipse Award finalists, voters ultimately acquiescing and awarding her the title based on her past performances.
“I’m just so happy she got the credit she rightfully deserved,” said McCarthy, a 51-year-old Youngstown, Ohio native, who spent 11 ½ years learning the ropes with Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher before going on his own in 2014.
“Ce Ce’s been very good for two years, and I think she proved that to a lot of people at the awards ceremony. I’m super-happy for Bo and (wife) Candi and enjoy the association and friendship I have with them.
“Bo’s a wonderful ambassador for the sport.”
Making her six-year-old debut in the Grade II Santa Monica Stakes at seven furlongs, the same distance as the Filly & Mare Sprint, Ce Ce finished second to front-running Merneith.
“The race track was a little looser and deeper than she liked,” McCarthy explained. “She likes it a little firmer and faster.”
As to her next race, McCarthy said, “we’ll work her next weekend and kind of see where we’re at and go from there.”
HIT THE ROAD HITS THE SIDELINES UNTIL SUMMER
Hit the Road, winner of the prestigious Grade I Frank E. Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita last March but a disappointing eighth in the Grade I Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 26, has been turned out for a freshening.
“He’s at Kingfisher (Farms) in Solvang (a popular tourist town in the Santa Ynez Valley) and he’ll be back in the summer,” trainer Dan Blacker said of the five-year-old More Than Ready horse owned by a partnership.
“To win Grade I’s you have to have a horse 100 percent and he wasn’t quite 100 percent (for the Gulfstream race),” Blacker said. Hit the Road finished eighth, beaten some 13 lengths.
“He’ll have a couple months off and hopefully there’s a chance he could be ready for a race like the Del Mar Mile if everything goes smoothly,” Blacker said.
“There’s a notion that he doesn’t ship well (the Pegasus was only his second start outside of Southern California in 13 career races), but I know him very well and he’s very smart, very intelligent, and he shipped very well to Florida.
“There were other reasons he didn’t run his best and we’re going to hopefully take care of them . . . but it wasn’t just the shipping . . . We’ll be patient and hopefully have him back at his best this summer.”
FINISH LINES: Reminder: there is an early first post time of 11 a.m. Sunday due to Big Game LVI on NBC TV set for a 3:30 p.m. start at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, former site of Hollywood Park. Recent fluctuating odds had the Los Angeles Rams (15-5) a four-point favorite over the upstart Cincinnati Bengals (13-7), with the Rams at minus 190 and the Bengals plus 165 on the money line. Total points were 48 ½ . . . Santa Anita track announcer Frank Mirahmadi will be host Tom Quigley‘s guest Sunday at 9:50 a.m. in the East Paddock Gardens . . .Santa Monica Stakes result update: Bob Baffert’s Merneith, who won last Saturday’s Grade II Santa Monica by three lengths under Edwin Maldonado, earned a 102 Beyer Speed Figure. Upon further review, that Beyer has been upgraded six ticks, to a lofty 108. According to DRF’s Brad Free, the 108 Beyer is the highest fig by a female sprinter in California since the fall of 2012, when Groupie Doll (BC Filly & Mare Sprint) and Beholder (2-year-old filly allowance) each registered 108s…There is special holiday racing a week from Monday, Feb. 21, President’s Day, when two $100,000 stakes will be featured, the Tiznow and the Spring Fever. First post time is 12:30 p.m. . . . The California Retirement Management Account (CARMA), a non-profit organization that provides funding for retirement of California-raced Thoroughbred horses, has unanimously elected Billy Koch as board president. Nominated by his predecessor, Candace Coder-Chew, whose term expired in January, Koch fills the position perfectly by bringing a key perspective and infectious enthusiasm to the board. As founder and managing partner of Little Red Feather Racing, one of the largest and most successful syndicates in horse racing, Koch has his finger on the pulse of the future of Thoroughbred ownerships . . . There were 169 recorded workouts Saturday, 40 on the training track . . . Agent George Bradvica (858-750 0492) now represents 10-pound apprentice rider Hannah Leahey and veteran jockey Chris Emigh, who turned 51 on Jan. 14 and was leading rider seven times at Hawthorne Race Course, 12 miles southwest of Chicago. The native of Portsmouth, Va. has won more than 4,200 races.
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