Curvy Cat: Consistently Versatile
California Gold Rush
S T O R Y
by EMILY SHIELDS Versatile Curvy Cat certainly doesn’t need to take her track with her. The four-year-old filly, victorious in the $126,000 B. Thoughtful Stakes during the California Gold Rush XIV day at Betfair Hollywood Park on April 27, was gaining her seventh win on her fourth surface at her fifth track, and extended her record to 14 in-the-money efforts in 15 starts. After breaking her maiden at Golden Gate Fields in January of 2012, for an $8,000 tag going five furlongs on the all-weather Tapeta surface, Curvy Cat won a pair of starter allowances there on her way to bigger and better things. She won an allowance on the dirt at Santa Rosa in July, and took an optional claimer on the same surface at Fresno in October. Her very first foray to Southern California yielded a third place finish in the $70,440 Skillful Joy Stakes at Hollywood Park, which she followed with another third in Santa Anita Park’s $81,700 Paseana Handicap in her 2013 debut, defeating dual grade II winner Great Hot (Brz). Down Santa Anita’s hillside turf course, Curvy Cat then defeated grade I-placed Best Present Ever, proving she fit with the best California-bred company. She made a point of consolidating that fact in the B. Thoughtful, a seven-furlong contest on Hollywood Park’s all-weather Cushion Track surface. The Tommy Town Thoroughbreds homebred, a daughter of resident stallion Ministers Wild Cat, finally captured her first stakes win in the B. Thoughtful, and defeated some nice horses in the process. After the scratch of grade I winner Teddy’s Promise, the
C O V E R
post-time favorite was the speedy California champion Ismene, who sought a return to form in her third start off a 13month layoff. Curvy Cat was sent off as the 6-1 fourth choice behind the likes of dual grade I-placed stakes winner Sugarinthemorning and the multiple stakes-placed Dancingtothestars. Under jockey Corey Nakatani, Curvy Cat settled well back, eighth in a 10-horse field, before rallying at the top of the stretch to run down Ismene in the lane. Curvy Cat scored by a length over that rival, with Dancingtothestars finishing a further 3 3/4 lengths back in third. Curvy Cat, a Jerry Hollendorfer-trainee, has now earned $241,373. Hollendorfer won three stakes races on the California Gold Rush card, and his hot hand left rival jockey Rafael Bejarano, on Ismene, defeated. “I had a lot of horse left,” Bejarano said after the race, “but you know (Hollendorfer) is hot today. He’s a very good trainer and his horses have been running very good. I had an opportunity to win the race. . .but the best horse beat me.” Hollendorfer felt better when the favorite was withdrawn. “When Teddy’s Promise was scratched, I think that bolstered everybody’s confidence a little bit because she was definitely the horse to beat,” he said. “We’ll see about finding more spots for her (Curvy Cat) here.” Curvy Cat was the first foal to live and is the only foal to race out of the winning Distorted Humor mare Curvy Girl, who has had difficult luck in the breeding shed. Curvy Girl also broke her maiden at Golden Gate, as did her dam, the stakes-winning Personal Flag mare Personal Fleet.
Curvy Cat
©Benoit photos
$126,000 B. Thoughtful Stakes
www.ctba.com
Saturday, April 27, 2013
CALIFORNIA THOROUGHBRED • JUNE 2013 21