Ritvo back at Spa with up-and-coming 3-year-olds
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Kathy Ritvo is back at Saratoga again this summer. Unlike the past two seasons, when she was here with the top handicap performer Mucho Macho Man, this time she’s in town with a couple of up-and-coming 3-year-old prospects, Fast Anna and the New York-bred Little Daddy.
Ritvo won the Breeders’ Cup Classic with Mucho Macho Man last year, becoming the first female trainer to win the race. Mucho Macho Man finished second in the 2012 Woodward and third in the 2013 Whitney in his only Saratoga stakes starts. Mucho Macho Man was retired earlier this summer.
“Everything has a season, but it was a really good ending for him,” said Ritvo. “I felt like I was dropping my kid off to college, watching him leave like that. But it’s good to be back up here again this summer.”
Ritvo is targeting the Grade 1 King’s Bishop for the well-bred Fast Anna, who is unbeaten in two starts, both at Gulfstream. Owned by Frank Calabrese, Fast Anna is by Medaglia d’Oro out of 2006 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and six-time graded stakes winner Dreaming of Anna.
Little Daddy, owned by Carlo Vaccarezza, will try statebred company for the first time on Aug. 24 in the West Point.