Ce Ce will defend her title in Princess Rooney
Bo Hirsch LLC’s Ce Ce will follow a proven formula for success when she defends her title in Saturday’s $300,000 Princess Rooney Invitational, a Grade 2 event at Gulfstream Park.
The 6-year-old daughter of Elusive Quality dominated last year’s edition of the seven-furlong sprint for fillies and mares on her way to clinching a 2021 Eclipse Award in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) at Del Mar.
The Michael McCarthytrained mare will seek to earn another fees-paid berth in this year’s World Thoroughbred Championships at Keeneland when she takes on five rivals in the Princess Rooney, a Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” event.
The Princess Rooney will headline Saturday’s Summit of Speed program that will also feature the $100,000 Smile Sprint (G3), a six-furlong race for 3-year-olds that will offer Breeders’ Cup incentives to the top three finishers.
Saturday’s first-race post time is 12:30 p.m.
Ce Ce, the 4-5 morning-line favorite, brings an impressive résumé of versatility into the Princess Rooney, having achieved Grade 1 success in both one-turn and two-turn stakes.
“She’s just an incredibly classy mare. She’s always aiming to please. I said it before: I wish all my colleagues, at one time in their lives, could have a mare like her, because all she does is try,” McCarthy said. “She’s made us look good a couple of times.”
Although she has won two Grade 1 stakes around two turns, it was around one turn in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint that she became the first McCarthy-trained Eclipse
Award champion.
“You can leave your mark on the game with horses like her.
It’s wonderful that she can be recognized as an Eclipse Award champion. It’s wonderful to do it for a guy like Bo Hirsch. He’s just a real patron of the game. His family’s been around for a long time. His father was a real icon of California,” the Santa Anita-based McCarthy said. “So, it’s a big deal, a big deal for us and a big deal to be able to share it with someone like Bo Hirsch.”
The defending Eclipse Award female sprint titlist will be cutting back to race around one turn in the Princess Rooney after capturing the Azeri (G2) and finishing third in the Apple Blossom
(G1) around two turns at Oaklawn Park.
“Earlier this year, with nothing really fitting [in Southern California], we decided to go to Oaklawn for the Azeri,” McCarthy said. “She ran so well in the Azeri that we decided to go back and give it a shot in the Apple Blossom.
“It looked like a race on paper that wasn’t going to be easy for us from a pace scenario. You had Letruska in there who was the lone speed. We didn’t want her to get too far away from us, so we took the race to her fairly early. I thought she ran well in defeat. It was one of those things, timing-wise, that you had to take a chance.”
Ce Ce’s success at Gulfstream has bolstered McCarthy’s confidence in her chances to repeat in the Princess Rooney.
“The track’s just seemed to have gotten a little deeper out here. She likes things a little bit faster,” he said. “We’ve been able to find a few racetracks to her liking.”
McCarthy, who saddled City of Light for a victory in the $9 million Pegasus World Cup (G1) at Gulfstream in 2019, has awarded the return mount on Ce Ce to Hall of Famer Victor Espinoza.
Trainer Charlton Baker and Michael Foster’s Glass Ceiling brings graded success at seven furlongs into the Princess Rooney. The New York invader notched back-to-back gradedstakes victories at the distance in the Feb. 19 Barbara Fritchie (G3) at Laurel and April 9 Distaff (G3) at Aqueduct while producing a four-race winning streak.
The 5-year-old daughter of Constitution is coming off a distant third behind victorious Bella Sofia in the June 10 Bed O Roses (G2) at Belmont Park.
Edgard Zayas has the call aboard Glass Ceiling, who is rated second at 7-2 in the morning line.
Grade 1 stakes-placed Make Mischief is entered to seek her first graded-stakes victory in the Princess Rooney. Gary Barber’s 4-year-old daughter of Into Mischief, who finished third in last year’s Acorn (G1), is coming off a victory over New Yorkbreds in the Critical Eye at Belmont by four lengths.
Edwin Gonzalez has been named to ride the Mark Cassetrained filly.
Slam Dunk Racing’s Allworthy, trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., makes a return into gradedstakes company Saturday while coming off a two-length victory in the 6 optional claiming allowance May 14 at Churchill Downs.
After finishing a tiring fourth in a mile optional claiming allowance at Gulfstream, Allworthy pressed the early pace in the Churchill race before drawing clear by two lengths.