Clement Hirsch favorites need to chill out pre-race
The warm-ups prior to the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch Stakes on Sunday at Del Mar will be as important as the race itself.
Hard Not to Love, winner of two sprint stakes at Santa Anita last winter, has at times displayed temperamental behavior before reaching the starting gate. She caused a delay of several minutes before the Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes on May 31 at Santa Anita, refusing to cooperate with jockey Mike Smith.
Eventually, Hard Not to Love made it to the gate and finished second to Fighting Mad, who led throughout. Ce Ce, the 3-5 favorite after two Grade 1 wins in the spring, finished third in the field of five. When Ce Ce reached the start, jockey Victor Espinoza sensed a change in his filly.
“She was feeling pretty good going to the track,” Espinoza recalled Friday. “When we got to the gate, she was not on her game anymore.”
Ce Ce finished 5 1/2 lengths behind Fighting Mad, a loss that ended a three-race winning streak.
On Sunday, Ce Ce, Fighting Mad, and Hard Not to Love are part of a strong field of six in the $250,000 Clement Hirsch Stakes. The other entrants are Ollie’s Candy, who won the 2019 Hirsch; Dogtag, a stakes winner on turf who will have her stakes debut on dirt; and Hang a Star, a stakes-placed sprinter expected to set the pace.
The winner receives a fees-paid berth in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 7 at Keeneland.
In recent weeks, Hard Not to Love has had a frequent pattern of schooling in the Del Mar paddock and being jogged to the top of the stretch before beginning more extensive exercise, Shirreffs said.
Hard Not to Love, who lost an eye in a paddock accident before her racing career, will be walked to the top of the stretch on Sunday and will have minimal pre-race exercise, Shirreffs said.
“Here, I think it will be a different situation,” an optimistic Shirreffs said Friday. “It’s all about her attitude. It’s all how she feels into the moment.”
Considering the events before the Santa Maria, Shirreffs was encouraged when Hard Not to Love finished second to Fighting Mad.
“I didn’t know how much she’d be into running going through what she did getting to the gate,” he said. “Once she breaks, she was into the race. She needs something to go right.”
Hard Not to Love has yet to win around two turns. She was second by 3 1/4 lengths to Ce Ce as the 3-5 favorite in the Beholder Mile on March 14 at Santa Anita in her first start outside of a sprint.
“She’s coming into this race really well,” Shirreffs said. “This will be a good test.”
Espinoza, for one, is hoping there will be no delays during warm-ups for any of the runners and that Ce Ce reaches the starting gate with good energy.
“If everything goes right, it will be a different game,” Espinoza said of Ce Ce. “She is an amazing filly.”
Ce Ce followed her Beholder victory with an impressive stretch run to win the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on April 18 at Oaklawn Park, catching stretch leader Ollie’s Candy to win by a head.
Trained by Michael McCarthy, Ce Ce is owned by Bo Hirsch, the son of the late influential owner and breeder Clement Hirsch for whom Sunday’s race is named.
Ce Ce will race at Del Mar for the first time Sunday, and McCarthy is hoping the main track is playing on the firm side.
“She’s training very well,” he said. “It’s finding a racetrack to her liking. She likes a firm and fast track, and you don’t always get it at Santa Anita. We got it in the Beholder.”
Ollie’s Candy led throughout the 2019 Hirsch, winning by a head. Winless in five subsequent starts, Ollie’s Candy will be fitted with a slightly different set of blinkers on Sunday after the loss in the Apple Blossom, which she led by 2 1/2 lengths in the stretch, and a third-place finish by a neck in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes on June 13 at Belmont Park.
“We’re cutting her blinkers back a little back,” trainer John Sadler said. “We think she loses focus a little bit out there or doesn’t see the other horses.
“She has an affinity for this track. We’ve had nice spacing, so I think we’re right there.”