Neige Blanche, Rideforthecause should relish distance of CTT and TOC

The farther the better for Neige Blanche and Rideforthecause, key entrants in the $80,000 CTT & TOC Stakes on Saturday at Del Mar.

The 1 3/8-mile turf race attracted eight fillies and mares, none more qualified than Neige Blanche and Rideforthecause. Both won spring stakes at Santa Anita.

Neige Blanche defeated Rideforthecause by a nose in a Grade 3 at 1 1/2 miles two starts back. Rideforthecause subsequently evened the score winning a minor stakes at 1 1/4 miles; Neige Blanche finished third. That was two months ago.

Trainer Leonard Powell could have run Neige Blanche a shorter distance, or shipped, but he opted to wait. “From the beginning of June to this race, there’s nothing for [turf] fillies and mares going a mile and one-eighth or more,” he said. “She hasn’t missed a day [of training], it’s just that there wasn’t a race for her.

“We wanted to focus on the Southern California circuit, and now that she relaxes at longer distances, I didn’t want to shorten her up.”

It makes sense. Neige Blanche’s stakes victories were 1 1/2 miles at Santa Anita, and 1 3/8 miles in France. Owned by a partnership that includes Madaket Stables, Laura De Seroux, Marsha Naify, and Mathilde Powell, Neige Blanche has won four races and $186,880 from 12 starts. Her rider is Juan Hernandez.

Stakes winners Ippodamia’s Girl and Red Lark enter the CTT & TOC with class credentials, while Crystalle, Catch the Eye, Tapwater, and Global Brand also entered. Neige Blanche’s main rival is the most probable winner – Rideforthecause.

A 5-year-old who won the Grade 2 Canadian for breeder Sam-Son Farm at Woodbine last fall, Rideforthecause was purchased for $1 million at a November sale by Alpha Delta Stables owner Jon Clay. It took time for new trainer Michael McCarthy to figure her out.

“First time out, right off the bench, I thought she ran okay,” McCarthy said, referring to her sixth in a 1 1/8-mile Grade 2 in late December. McCarthy acknowledged he was “still on the low side of the learning curve with her.”

Rideforthecause subsequently missed time with a minor setback, and returned in April at one mile. It was too short, only a prep, and she finished sixth. “She’s a filly that needs some pace and some furlongs in front of her,” McCarthy said.

Next time out, she finished a nose behind Neige Blanche in the Grade 3 Santa Barbara at 1 1/2 miles.

Rideforthecause followed by winning the Possibly Perfect Stakes at 1 1/4 miles, her fifth win from 15 starts. Mario Gutierrez rides Rideforthecause, who also is racing for the first time in two months.

Ippodamia’s Girl won the restricted Osunitas Stakes last month at one mile; Red Lark won the Del Mar Oaks last summer and recently finished last in a Grade 1. Tapwater, third in two recent starts, is a candidate to set the pace.