Frenzified takes advantage of distance in CTT and TOC Handicap
DEL MAR, Calif. – After tuning up in races at a mile and 1 1/16 miles in her first two starts in this country, Frenzified finally got a chance to stretch out to a distance trainer Jim Cassidy thought would be ideal, and she responded by capturing the $78,445 CTT and TOC Handicap going 1 3/8 miles Friday at Del Mar.
Frenzified had won going 1 1/4 miles and twice going 1 1/2 miles in her native Great Britain before being acquired last fall by Cassidy for his main client, Deron Pearson’s D P Racing. She was third going a mile at Santa Anita in June, her first start in more than eight months, and was second going 1 1/16 miles here July 17.
Both of those prior races were second-level allowances, but the jump in class for Friday’s race was more than offset by Frenzified finding a distance right up her alley.
“We pointed for this. With her pedigree,” Cassidy said of Frenzified, who is by the long-distance specialist Yeats, a four-time winner of the Ascot Gold Cup, “she’s supposed to like two miles.”
Frenzified ($11.20), the third choice in a field of six older female grass runners, sat second during the early going behind favored Fanticola. She moved to the lead on the far turn and never was threatened through the lane, winning by 1 1/2 lengths. Generosidade rallied from fifth to be second, 1 1/4 lengths in front of third-place Annulment.
Fanticola faded to fourth and was followed, in order, by Energia Fribby and Dressed to a T.
Santiago Gonzalez rode Frenzied, who completed 1 3/8 miles on firm turf in 2:14.84.
Cassidy said his most anxious moment came in the paddock.
“After I saddled her, she was wild today,” he said. “But she settled in the race.”
Cassidy said he was inclined to step Frenzified up to Grade 1 company for the Rodeo Drive on Oct. 1 at Santa Anita. That would require cutting back to 1 1/4 miles, but the $300,000 first prize and Grade 1 black type makes it well worth the effort.