There is no better way to sum up Sassy C W’s debut than the official Equibase chart comment – the simple statement “rocket ship.”
After running them off their feet in her debut, Sassy C W now takes her talents to New York to make her stakes debut in her second career start, the $150,000 Astoria Stakes on Thursday at Saratoga. The Astoria and its brother race, the $150,000 Tremont Stakes for open juveniles, are long-lived early-season stakes in this division.
Sassy C W, from the well-regarded first crop of Grade 1-winning sprinter Yaupon, was a $375,000 purchase at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s March sale of 2-year-olds in training by Carolyn Wilson. She races for that owner and Patrica’s Hope LLC, major clients of trainer Larry Rivelli.
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About a month after her first published work in his care, Rivelli unveiled the filly going 4 1/2 furlongs, the traditional early-season distance, on April 30 at Churchill Downs. Under Jareth Loveberry – who is in to ride again Thursday – the filly rocketed out of the gate and ticked off splits of 21.91 seconds for the opening quarter and 44.89 for the half. She led by no fewer than five lengths at any point of call and crossed the wire 5 1/4 lengths in front under a hand ride. She finished the distance in 51.34, not only faster than the maiden win of any other filly entered in the Astoria, but faster than any of the entrants in the Tremont as well.
“She’s been really good ever since we bought her, one of the ones that make you go ‘Oh!’ every time we trained her,” Rivelli said. “So I was pretty confident when we ran her that day. . . . Obviously, the fact that she kept going the way she did, and galloped out really well, and when she came back, she was lights-out perfect – I just wanna wrap her in bubble wrap now.”
Indeed, showing how little the rocket debut took out of her, Sassy C W bounced out of her debut to fire a bullet four-furlong work in an eye-catching 46.20 on May 15 at Rivelli’s Hawthorne base.
“That wasn’t by design – that was about as slow as we could get her to go,” Rivelli said. “Normally, I don’t work that fast after a race – normally, I don’t work that fast at all – but that was all her. The instructions were to go 49 or 50, and the rider that worked her has worked for me for 30 years and usually is right on the money all the time. I watched her work myself, and it looked like she was going in – I thought she probably went 48 or 49. It wasn’t by design – she did it all on her own, for sure.”
Rivelli is not concerned about Sassy C W – whose sire Yaupon, by classic sire Uncle Mo, won at up to seven furlongs – going from 4 1/2 furlongs to the 5 1/2 furlongs of the Astoria. He noted that the filly only had published three-furlong works before her debut.
“The distance, I’m really not worried about, at least the 5 1/2 at this point of her career,” Rivelli said. “She acts like she’ll do it. I’d never breezed her anywhere near the distance she ran last time. . . . She’s well-mannered, and she’s got a good brain on her, which is good. The shipping part, I don’t think is going to be a problem.”
In a field of six, Sassy C W could get a fairly straightforward trip. Rounding out the group are Vernon Valley, a debut winner at Aqueduct; Varinisi, a debut winner at Evangeline; Gena B, second to the well-regarded Kadabra debuting at five furlongs at Aqueduct; Looks to Kill, a maiden after two starts; and first-time starter Ticket to Ride.
Tremont Stakes
The only 2-year-old in Thursday’s Saratoga stakes to approach Sassy C W’s 4 1/2-furlong time is the filly Mythical – who has been supplemented to face males in the Tremont rather than tangling with the other speedball. Mythical covered the distance in 51.37 seconds in her April 17 debut at Gulfstream, leading throughout and drawing clear in the stretch to win by 8 1/2 lengths for trainer Jorge Delgado.
Rivelli also has a Tremont entrant in Mercilesanihilator, a debut winner the day after Sassy C W at Churchill Downs. The colt broke sharply to get the jump on Wesley Ward’s well-regarded Moonlight Beauty, dueled with that one, and then ran on well in the stretch to win by 1 3/4 lengths.
“I liked him just as much as her,” Rivelli said. “He’s not quite as quick as her, but I know Wesley loved his horse in that race. . . . For us to take all that pressure from his horse and still come back and run, I think is a sign of just a good horse.”
Romeo was a 10 1/4-length maiden winner at Laurel for John Robb, who brought in Studlydoright to win the 2024 Tremont. Completing the field of five are the maidens Blinging It Back, who could improve off a green third in Mercilesanihilator’s maiden; and Baytown Dreamer, who is making his third start.
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