Ce Ce Ventures East for 350K G2 Princess Rooney
At 0h02, on July 3, 2021 • By GULFSTREAM PARK
Trainer Michael McCarthy has sent Ce Ce on a cross-country journey to Gulfstream Park on a quest to snag the biggest prize of the Spring/Summer Meet in Saturday’s $350,000 Princess Rooney Invitational (G2).
The Southern California-based trainer has a history of big-race success at the Hallandale Beach track, having claimed the Championship Meet’s richest event with City of Light’s score in the $9 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) in 2019.
“City of Light’s win in the Pegasus was a nice introduction to Gulfstream,” McCarthy said. “We came back to Gulfstream for the Pegasus this year with Independence Hall, who I thought ran a very good third. It’s a racetrack we’ve performed well at. We’re obviously expecting more of the same this weekend.”
Ce Ce, 3-1 in the morning-line in a field of eight fillies and mares in the Princess Rooney, is a two-time Grade 1 stakes winner. The 5-year-old daughter of Elusive Quality scored back-to-back victories in the Beholder Mile (G1) at Santa Anita and the Apple Blossom (G1) at Oaklawn last year. Although Bo Hirsch LLC’s home-bred mare’s greatest successes have achieved in two-turn races, McCarthy said he was confident that she was ready for Saturday’s one-turn challenge.
“I thought the seven-eighths would be a wonderful distance for her. It looks like there might be some rain down there this week, and I think she might like a wet-fast racetrack,” said McCarthy, who had considered the 1 1/16-mile Ogden Phipps (G1) on the June 5 Belmont Stakes (G1) undercard.
Ce Ce concluded her 2021 campaign with a fifth-place finish behind Monomoy Girl following an extremely wide trip in the Nov. 7 Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) at Keeneland. The Kentucky-bred mare came back five-months later to capture a seven-furlong optional claiming allowance at Santa Anita by 3 ¼ lengths. She went back to two-turns in the Santa Maria, in which she bobbled at the start and faded to fourth.
“She had a nice little break after the Breeders’ Cup – I thought her race in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff was sneaky good,” said McCarthy, a former long-time assistant to Todd Pletcher before going on his own in 2014. “It was always our plan to give her some time off. She’s come back good. These racetracks in California don’t seem to suit her.”
Ce Ce arrived at Gulfstream Tuesday evening. McCarthy has “deputized” Ralph Nicks to oversee her training and saddle her for the Princess Rooney in his absence.
