Cathy's Crunches romps in Golden Gate Debutante

ALBANY, Calif. - The favored Cathy's Crunches ($5) was virtually unchallenged in an easy wire-to-wire victory in the six-furlong $50,900 Golden Gate Debutante on Saturday at Golden Gate Fields.

The well-traveled 2-year-old filly trained by Jerry Hollendorfer was running on her fourth track in five career starts. She began her career with a maiden claiming victory at Calder, then ran twice at Del Mar after being purchased by Hollendorfer and Mark DeDomenico and was second in her last start at Philadelphia Park.

She broke a bit slowly but took over before the field of five had run the opening quarter. She relaxed nicely under jockey Chad Schvaneveldt and pulled clear in the lane, beating Justenfappeal by 5 1/2 lengths while winning her stakes debut in 1:10.15. Congress Woman Ivy was third, a neck behind Justenufappeal and a head in front of Melissa Rose.

"Everything went great," said Schvaneveldt. "Once I got away with that first quarter [23.31 seconds] I said, 'Game over boys, game over.' She was very relaxed and when I asked her at the quarter pole she responded well."

A daughter of West Acre, Cathy's Crunches earned $30,000, while improving her career mark to 3 wins in 5 starts and career earnings to $78,520.