Ce Ce impresses by rallying for Princess Rooney triumph
Ce Ce, the only Grade 1 winner in the field, asserted her class edge in rallying to an impressive 3 1/4-length victory over a surprisingly heavily favored Estilo Talentoso in the $350,000 Princess Rooney Invitational, which highlighted Saturday’s Summit of Speed program at Gulfstream Park.
Ce Ce earned an automatic berth into the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint by winning the Grade 2 dash while completing a sweep of the afternoon’s two main events for jockey Victor Espinoza, who earlier won the Grade 3 Smile Sprint aboard Miles Ahead.
Ce Ce, who won the Grade 1 Beholder Mile and Apple Blossom Handicap within a five-week span early last season, came into the seven-furlong Princess Rooney off a disappointing fourth-place finish in the 1 1/16-mile Grade 2 Santa Maria at Santa Anita, a race her trainer, Michael McCarthy, said to dismiss because of the deeper nature of the racetrack that day.
Espinoza allowed Ce Ce to settle off the early pace set by Pacific Gale and prompted from the outset by Sound Machine. Ce Ce angled out four paths wide while joining the leaders into the stretch before readily drawing well clear once settling for the drive. Estilo Talentoso, winner of the Grade 3 Bed of Roses over a sloppy track at Belmont Park in her last start, raced at the rear of the eight-horse field down the backstretch. She quickly surged to closer contention while widest on the turn, rallying mildly to best Sound Machine for the placing while never menacing the winner as the 6-5 favorite.
Laura’s Light, who figured to prompt the early running, lost all chance after stumbling badly at the break.
Ce Ce, whose owner Bo Hirsch LLC received a $20,000 bonus offered to any Grade 1 winner who started in the Princess Rooney, won for the sixth time in 13 career starts while becoming racing’s latest millionaire in the process. She completed the distance over the fast footing in 1:21.94, returning a surprisingly generous $7.40 to her backers.
“That’s kind of more or less what we knew she was capable of,” McCarthy said by phone from California after the race. “Her last race, I basically drew a line through it. The surface makes a tremendous difference with her. She likes it fast and hard like it was today. I couldn’t have drawn it up much better. Victor and I spoke about not getting in a hurry leaving there. Just let her place herself. She looked full of run on the turn and once she got outside she finished full of run.”
McCarthy said he was going to leave all options open moving forward, both race and distance-wise, for Ce Ce who finished what he described as a “sneaky good” fifth in the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.