Six Races Carded for Saturday
Today's newsletter takes a first look at Saturday's six-race card, while also featuring the latest in our Horse of the Year profiles and welcoming new recruit Gunfighter to the John Snow barn
Hastings Horse of the Year Nominees
Our look at the nominees for 2021 Horse of the Year honours continues with PRINCESS OF CAIRO, a classy filly close to the heart of the late Glen Todd.
PRINCESS OF CAIRO dk b m, 2017, by Prince Cairo x Lovely Cool (Indian Charlie)
Owner: Mark DeDemonico LLC & North American Thoroughbred Horse Co.
Breeder: Bret Jones
Trainer: Glen Todd
The former Washington Oaks winner made her 2021 reappearance at Turf Paradise in a non-winner of three Allowance event. As expected, she won handily but then failed to fire later the same month when making her debut on turf in the $30k Queen of the Green Stakes.
That was the end of the turf experiment for Princess of Cairo and, following a fourth-place finish in another Turf Paradise Allowance event, she returned to Hastings and winning ways, making short work of a useful field to land a $30k Allowance contest by nearly five lengths.
Following two creditable defeats at her home track behind the likes of Infinite Patience and Solarity, Princess of Cairo bounced back with gusto - landing the $50k Emerald Distaff by four lengths, simultaneously proving the old adage that while form may be temporary, class is permanent .
With another Stakes victory in the bag, Todd pointed his classy filly east of the Rockies to the Listed Northlands Distaff at Century Mile. Ridden by retained jockey Efrain Hernandez, she ran gallantly and finished second, splitting fellow Hastings’ royalty Infinite Patience and Here’s Hannah in the process.
A good-sized and attractive filly by the dual Grade 2 winner Prince Cairo, out of the Stakes-producer Lovely Cool, Princess of Cairo was purchased by Glen Todd’s North American Thoroughbred Horse Company at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale for a modest $20,000.
On her day, Princess of Cairo was among the very best fillies to represent the NATHC barn at Hastings over the past two seasons. Her $115,000 sale price at Glen Todd’s recent dispersal sale underlined not only her racetrack achievements, but also just what a brilliant job Todd and co. did to secure her for such a modest sum as a yearling.
New Shooter in Town
It’s always exciting to welcome new horses to Hastings. The attractive incentive schemes so imaginatively put together by the local industry have seen a host of new names arrive over the past few months.
The Fresh Horse program in particular has garnered an enthusiastic response and we’ve already seen a few of the imports in action.
The latest new face on the block is GUNFIGHTER (above). He arrived this week by charter flight from Ohio, via Seattle and a van trip across the border, to join the John Snow barn for owner Gordon Christoff. Last seen in action at Churchill Downs, GUNFIGHTER is by Ghostzapper out of the winning Smart Strike mare Gauche and, consigned by Gainesway, he was originally a $220k Keeneland September yearling graduate.
Snow and Christoff, who obtained the 3yo colt privately, will very much hope they can repeat the trick they pulled off with the great Brave Nation. That canny acquisition developed into a top-class Hastings performer, finishing second in the BC Premier’s Handicap the year Christoff bought him, before winning the Grade 3 event the following season.
Those are big hoofprints for Gunfighter to follow, but he’s in the best of hands and has shown enough in his races elswhere to suggest he will make an impact on the East Van oval. The very best of luck to Snow and Christoff with Gunfighter and to all the other owners who have shown such ambition in bringing new talent to Hastings for the coming season.