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Breeders’ Cup Winner Ce Ce Kicks Off 2022 Campaign In Saturday’s Santa Monica Stakes

Fresh off the biggest win of her career, the Bo Hirsch homebred Ce Ce heads a field of five older fillies and mares going seven furlongs in Saturday's Grade 2, $200,000 Santa Monica Stakes at Santa Anita.

A handy 2 ½ length winner of the G1 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint going seven panels at Del Mar Nov. 6, Ce Ce will be bidding for her third consecutive graded stakes win in what will be her first start at age six on Saturday.

With five wins from eight starts at Santa Anita, Ce Ce, who is by Elusive Quality and is out of Hirsch's Grade 1 stakes winning Miss Houdini, by Belong to Me, is a three-time Grade 1 winner who has earnings of $1,753,100 from an overall mark of 16-8-1-3.

Trained by Michael McCarthy, Ce Ce enjoyed a tremendous year at age five, winning four out of her six starts while banking $888,000. She'll again be ridden by Victor Espinoza, who has been aboard for all but two of her career starts.

Bob Baffert will be represented by a pair of distaffers, recent Grade 1 winner Kalypso and Merneith, who ran a big second in the ungraded Kalookan Queen at 6 ½ furlongs Jan. 2 following a nearly one year absence. A winner of last year's Santa Monica, Merneith, a 5-year-old mare by American Pharoah, will be ridden for the third consecutive time by Edwin Maldonado, who was aboard for last year's Santa Monica score.

Owned by HRH Prince Sultan Bin Mishal Al Saud, Merneith, who will hope to improve with a recent race to her credit, is 11-4-4-2 overall with earnings of $373,620.

A 4 ¾ length winner of the G1 La Brea Stakes at seven furlongs Dec. 26, Kalypso will nonetheless be facing tougher competition as she'll be competing against older distaffers for the first time. Owned by Rockingham Ranch, David Bernsen, Littlefield, et al, Kalypso, a 4-year-old daughter of Brody's Cause, has won two of her three starts, including last year's G2 Santa Ynez Stakes at seven furlongs. With an overall mark of 9-3-3-2 and earnings of $480,600, she'll be ridden back by John Velazquez.

Hronis Racing's Park Avenue, who had a two-game winning streak snapped when a well beaten second in the G3 La Canada Stakes going a mile and one sixteenth on Jan. 1, will shorten up out of five consecutive routes in what will be her second stakes engagement.

Trained by John Sadler, Park Avenue, a 4-year-old filly by Quality Road, will be ridden for the third consecutive time by Juan Hernandez.

THE GRADE 2 SANTA MONICA WITH JOCKEYS & WEIGHTS IN POST POSITION ORDER

Race 6 of 9 Approximate post time 3 p.m. PT

Kalypso—John Velazquez—124
Ce Ce—Victor Espinoza—124
Merneith – Edwin Maldonado – 122
Full of Grace – Abdul Alsagoor – 120
Park Avenue – Juan Hernandez – 120

First post time for a nine-race card, which will include three graded stakes on Saturday is at 12:30 p.m. Admission gates will open at 10:30 a.m.

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Breeders’ Cup Foal Nominations Close Feb. 28

The last opportunity to nominate foals of 2021 to the Breeders' Cup closes Feb. 28 at 11:59 p.m. ET.
The one-time nomination fee of $1,500 entitles each foal to lifetime eligibility to the Breeders' Cup World Championships and the Breeders' Cup Racing Programs. All foals sired by a fully nominated North American Breeders' Cup stallion are eligible for nomination to the Breeders' Cup program in their year of birth and up to Feb. 28 of their yearling year.

The post Breeders’ Cup Foal Nominations Close Feb. 28 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Breeders’ Cup: $1,500 Late Foal Nomination Deadline Closes Feb. 28

The Breeders' Cup issued a reminder today that Monday, Feb. 28 at 11:59 p.m. ET is the last opportunity to nominate foals born in 2021 to the Breeders' Cup program for a one-time late nomination fee of $1,500 USD.

The $1,500 nomination entitles each foal with lifetime eligibility to the Breeders' Cup World Championships and the Breeders' Cup Racing Programs.

All foals sired by a fully nominated North American Breeders' Cup stallion are eligible for nomination to the Breeders' Cup program in their year of birth and up to Feb. 28 of their yearling year.

Breeders' Cup Limited has been Thoroughbred racing's most significant international program for over 38 years.

During this time, Breeders' Cup has allocated purses and awards of almost $900 million to owners, foal nominators, and stallion nominators through its programs, including the annual $31 million Breeders' Cup World Championships showcasing the best Thoroughbreds, owners, trainers, and jockeys to a global audience.

Breeders' Cup foal nominators will earn $10,000 USD for every victory in the worldwide Breeders' Cup Challenge “Win and You're In” Series and every horse that starts in a Breeders' Cup World Championship race will earn a nominator award. The individual nominating the foal receives these nominator awards even though the horse may change hands throughout its racing career.

For more information and to nominate online visit members.breederscup.com.

The post Breeders’ Cup: $1,500 Late Foal Nomination Deadline Closes Feb. 28 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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MSW Purses to Trend Upward at Keeneland, Churchill

Purses for maiden special weight (MSW) races are projected to trend upward this spring at both Keeneland Race Course and Churchill Downs.

Track executives disclosed the pre-condition book figures during Tuesday's Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) advisory board meeting.

“The MSWs for older horses are going to be $100,000. And the [MSW races for] 2-year-olds are going to be $80,000,” said Keeneland's vice president of racing, Gatewood Bell.

At Keeneland's 2021 spring meet, the comparable MSW purse levels were $79,000 and $60,000.

Mike Ziegler, the senior vice president and general manager at Churchill, told KTDF board members that, “We have yet to finalize our purse structure for the upcoming meet. I expect them to be probably right in line with where they were in the fall, which was at $120,000 for [MSW races].”

In the spring of 2021, Churchill carded two levels of MSW money. For the lead-in to the GI Kentucky Derby, the purses were $115,000. After that, those races were written for $100,000.

Bell also outlined the allowance purse structure for Keeneland's April meet: Starting at the 1x condition, purses will be $110,000, with consecutive bumps upward of $10,000 for each the 2x, 3x, and open allowance levels, maxing out at $140,000.

Rick Hiles, the president of the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, said, “I think it's great. Just don't leave out the claiming races. Make sure the guys that are running their horses in the claiming races every day are well-compensated, too.”

Bell said he agreed, and that Keeneland's condition book–which will come out later this week or sometime next week–will reflect claiming purse increases “just to help bolster those races that [don't] qualify for the KTDF funds.”

When prodded by KTDF advisory committee chair Bill Landes, III to give a glimpse of what purse levels might look like in the fall when Keeneland hosts the Breeders' Cup, Bell said the “hope [is] that it'll carry from the spring right into the fall and look fairly similar.”

When Churchill follows Keeneland in the spring rotation, it will open this year with a new turf course in place. Construction and seeding of that surface prevented Churchill from carding grass races last fall.

Ziegler noted that Churchill will be adding three Wednesday programs in June, making for two five-date weeks of racing and one six-date week that concludes with a Monday, July 4, holiday card.

It was not discussed at the meeting how that outlying six-date final week might adversely affect the available horse population at Ellis Park, which has a scheduled July 8 opening.

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