What’s New, C.V. Cat? It’s Ketch As Ketch Can In Idaho

I’m spending this week on a mini-vacation from the game. It’s just too bloody hot; when it takes until 2:30 in the morning to dip below 80, it’s not what one might call “Sim weather”. But while I am enjoying a chance to refresh myself from the game, I did notice a few months ago, when the current stakes schedule was released, that I have a vested interest in one of the upcoming races.

I scoured through my list of stakes winners, and discovered to my delight that one of them has a stakes race named after them. Unfortunately for myself, what I had forgotten is that it coincided with my self-imposed exile. So, I’ve turned this into a “working vacation” for myself, in the name of C.V. Cat.

What I remember about C.V. Cat was that he was my first $25 horse. I had won credits in Mouse Bingo (anyone remember that?), and it was just about enough to breed something spectacular for credits on a Sunday. So I waited and I watched and the instant breeding opened that day, back in March 2006, I clicked faster than anyone and got my only homebred Storm Cat. In fact, to date, I have only scratch-bred one horse using either Storm Cat, Seattle Slew, and Nijinsky II. This was that horse.

He won his debut that March with a speed figure of 77, managed a third in the Grade II Faber College Juvenile, was fifth a couple of other times in graded races. But he never really took flight as I imagined he would, and though he won his first three races, wins started getting pretty hard to come by. He won three stakes races, though, and was a pretty game performer throughout his brief career. It was just that he frustrated me: for $25 and blue blood, I expected more than taking a year to clear all his allowance conditions. I may have made my mistakes in my time in the Sim, but when I would up retiring him, I made my biggest goof, because I retired him at 4, and never took into account the fact that as a retired male, he wasn’t going to be bred to unless I did so at the moment of retirement. In other words, I forgot that he wouldn’t join my retired-mare pool for later use, and that when now or never came up, I chose “never” upon his retirement. So, yeah, “bear of very little brain” am I.

I can’t afford $25 a pop for stars any more. I’m not disciplined enough to save up. So I take what I can get on a budget. But, for one brief shining moment with this generation’s top domestic sire, he experienced his own Camelot. And because of that, this weekend, five horses take the $25,000 C.V. Cat Challenge. It sounds like a game show, or, worse yet, a reality show. But it’s the first running of a six and a half furlong sprint for older horses in Idaho. And it’s attracted a showstopper, in Ketch.

Ketch is a millionaire, a winner of $1.5 million, 15 races, including five graded stakes, and those include three Grade I events. He faces just four others here, but there’s not a slouch to be found here. (OK, I’m kinda lying here, but whatcha gonna do? I’m on vacation, talk to my lawyer when I come back on Sunday evening.)

Ironically, a son of Storm Cat starts the field: The Protector [Storm Cat-Hodor, by Awesome Again, trained by lopic for Given Stables: Fire and Blood].  He’s been grinding away at this level, but has run up a solid streak of triple-digit speed figures: in the last eighteen months, covering seventeen races, he’s picked up sixteen triple-digit numbers, a solid run of good luck and consistency.  He’s won three times in six starts this year, including a pair of stakes wins, and loves to come from off the pace, come rain or come shine.  He’s been facing small fields with talented runners and still been firing some good efforts, so there’s still some strong races left in him.  His last effort was an even run at seven and a half furlongs, but he usually runs better going shorter, in which case a turn back in distance should help.  There isn’t much pace in here, so his closing kick might need some help getting going, and this is a very evenly matched field among three favorites.  But if there’s an omen, he has won his last four tries at this distance, with two stakes wins, and is 6-for-10 lifetime at six and a half furlongs.

Ketch [Awesome Again-Ironhorse Award, by Mr. Prospector, trained by bigskyfarm for Lilbitfarm Stables] is the best by far of his family.  His closest rivals in his family have earned about $1.25 million less than him.  But he’s earned every penny.  He may have retired from the graded-stakes circuit, but the back class stands out like neon, with Grade I wins coming in the 2008 Gary Carter, the 2008 Billy And Jimmy, and the 2007 World Cup Long Sprint.  In fact, the keywords are “long sprint”, seeing as how most of his wins have come at distances seven furlongs or longer, like those Grade I wins were.  He’s only won four times at distances shorter than seven-eighths of a mile, but he did get a graded win there, too, in the Grade III Conan The Barbarian back in 2007.  His recent form isn’t too shabby, either, because his speed figures have remained comfortable in the mid-to-upper 100’s for most of the last seven months.  He’s won twice this year, both in stakes, both at seven and a half furlongs.  That’s not to his advantage, considering he’s a long-sprint specialist and just to his inside is a six and a half furlong beast.  But he’s got the back class, and he’s coming into a second race off of a wet-track try, which is typically when a horse who hates the mud tends to fire a much improved shot in a race.  He also has a closing kick that is looking for a pace to aid him in the pursuit, which he also might not get here, but he has shown that he can be up close to a slower pace and still perform.  Besides, let’s face it, back class is an underrated commodity in the Sim, and he’s the only graded runner in the field.

Maxie Raxie [Protege x Happy Giggle, trained by deeprock20 for DEEP ROCK STABLES] is the youngest by far in the field, at the age of 3, and he’s the only Indian-bred here, and…well, that’s about it.  He’s 86-1.  But we’ll be fair here.  He’s on paper the main source of speed.  He’s youthful, making his tenth start.  He’s…got a rhyming name.  On the down side, his best speed figure is still just an 85.  He’s facing his elders who have run speed figures into the mid-110’s.  He’s not quite ready for prime time, frankly.  But there is hope.  His pedigree is screaming out for grass, which he hasn’t tried yet.  And he’s young, and this is the time of year when the three-year-olds are maturing into runners that can compete against older horses.  And frankly, even at 86-1, he’s not like those horses that get into the stakes races with odds resembling pi to twenty-seven digits.  This horse has never finished off the board, has shown a good amount of early speed in a race lacking it, and at least he has broken his maiden.  There are worse horses who have run in bigger races, so even if he’s in far over his head against a graded winner and three other iron-plated platers, he’s not near the disgraces most of us have seen.  I’ll be very curious to see what a surface switch might do, and even if it doesn’t pan out, it’ll be intriguing to see if this colt can move forward off a grass race and really become something solid.

Kirby Is Ready [More Than Ready x Gone West, trained by kirby66 for Nighthawk Stables].  Judging by the pics on the main page of the Sim’s website, I’m pretty sure I know what he’s ready for.  But I digress.  The horse, I assume, is ready as well.  He’s in the opposite situation from Ketch, seeing as how this horse has run only once beyond six and a half furlongs, and that was at a mile.  He has never run at seven or seven and a half furlongs, and that might be to his benefit here.  He’s won fifteen times, but only three wins came at this distance.  Yet he’s a solid short sprinter.  He knows how to supply pressure from a stalker’s role, and could easily find himself on the lead at any point here because there’s so little speed on paper.  He’s won twice this year, including a stakes win, and his speed figures are very strong at the shorter sprints of shorter than six furlongs.  He can certainly compete here, but with two horses possessing some good closing speed, and with not much separating him from the front end, he might get taken advantage of to the point of providing this field with enough of a front-end duel to set it up for the closers.  He has a 110 speed figure in his recent past, but it must be said his numbers recently have been seriously lagging below what he has been capable of.  He may benefit from the grass race he’s never had, at some point, but here, his role is likely going to be that of pace-controller through the opening furlongs.  Whether he can last is up to his fitness level.  Whether he can hold off the late rush is up to the class level.

Manetti [Alberto Giacometti-Mango North, by Woodman, trained by wtas01 for Teejay Racing Stables] is on his third trainer, but he seems to be closing in on a level of his own to be competitive against.  A former claimer running for a $2,000 tag in February of 2008 has become a stakes-placed contender in these small stakes races.  He was third two back in a European sprint stakes, and fifth in the slop last out in a stakes at the Kim Jong-il Race Course and International House of Pancakes in North Korea.  Exactly why we have a North Korea track in the first place is something for Ripley, but again I digress.  He’s another bonafide closer, usually preferring to kick from well back as they turn for home.  The good news is that he’s run through his allowance conditions, and this is a small field to contend with.  But like the other closers, he would benefit from a more fiery pace than he’s going to likely get, and his speed figures, while getting better with each start, still require a leap forward if he’s going to become a stakes winner on his own.  The off-track race last out should work to his benefit for training purposes, and he should relish the warmth and fast surface he shipped in from overseas to run on.  This is the kind of Sim success story we like to see, and the kind of story racing doesn’t often give us anymore, of the underdog saved from obscurity and slowly working himself into a homegrown star.  This race should be a progression for him, a step in the right direction, but his speed figures still need to pick up a few extra points before he could consider himself a giant-slayer.

I won’t pick a winner, due to the short field, the short night, and the short attention span thanks to the hot nighttime temperatures.  Besides, I’m on vacation.  I just wanted to honor an old Sim “friend” the way he honored me a few years ago, for being the first blue-blooded success story I almost had.  Good luck to all, and happy racing.