Crispy Cat has to deal with talented shippers in My Frenchman
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Were the $100,000 My Frenchman Stakes on Sunday at Monmouth Park strictly a local affair, trainer Jorge Delgado would have the race covered, turf or dirt. Delgado has Crispy Cat in the main body of the My Frenchman, restricted to 3-year-olds and carded for 5 1/2 furlongs on turf, and Super Chow as a capable main-track-only entrant. But shippers from Kentucky and Virginia will have a say.
Trainer Rusty Arnold sent Sweet Cherry Pie from Keeneland to New Jersey this week and said the colt runs Sunday whether the My Frenchman stays on grass or is rained onto dirt. From the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland comes Sir Lancelot, who makes his belated 3-year-old debut after showing promise at 2.
The National Weather Service forecasted a 50 percent to 60 percent chance of heavy rain Friday night into Saturday and an even greater chance Sunday, so as of Friday, what sort of surface the race will be run over was uncertain. Regardless, Sweet Cherry Pie, who never has raced on grass, could be formidable.
Fourth of 10 in his career debut, a Gulfstream maiden race won by the talented colt Scotland, Sweet Cherry Pie got an equipment change, blinkers on, for his second start and captured a Keeneland maiden race April 14 with a 95 Beyer Speed Figure. That was no fluke. Back five weeks later in a first-level Churchill allowance, Sweet Cherry Pie dueled on the lead with Saudi Crown, eventually succumbing to finish a clear second. No shame, because Saudi Crown returned with an excellent second in the Dwyer at Belmont, where he got a 106 Beyer. Sweet Cherry Pie went on to Ellis Park, where he regressed in another allowance race after pressing the pace three to four paths wide around the far turn racing over a rail-biased surface. Sweet Cherry Pie is by the good turf sire Twirling Candy and out of Sweet Cat, stakes-placed in turf sprints.
Sir Lancelot aired in his career debut last September dirt-sprinting at Delaware and came right back to capture a Tapeta stakes at Presque Isle. He endured a difficult trip in the Bowman Mill last October at Keeneland, fading to fourth, and only now is ready to return to racing. His trainer, Michael Stidham, over the last five years has a strong record of 15-6-2-1 with horses making their turf debut following a layoff of 180 days or longer.
Super Chow won the Bowman Mill for Delgado and went on to have a fine winter, too, winning three stakes and finishing second in the Grade 3 Swale. He ran poorly in the Chick Lang at Pimlico in May, and while Super Chow rebounded to some extent June 24 with a third in the Carry Back at Gulfstream, he does have the look of a colt whose development came quickly late at age 2 and early at 3 before leveling off.
Crispy Cat had a busy and relatively successful 2-year-old campaign in England and Ireland for AMO Racing before joining Delgado’s barn this year. He won the Texas Glitter, a Gulfstream turf sprint, and might not have been at his best over a good course when beaten by fellow My Frenchman runner Chiringo at Keeneland three months ago. But Crispy Cat’s front-running style could land him in a pace battle – and there are talented shippers to deal with.
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