By Ben Massam
Cash is King LLC, best known for its success with 2005 GI Preakness and GI Belmont S. winner Afleet Alex (Northern Afleet), is back with another promising prospect after Cathryn Sophia (Street Boss) demolished her competition in Laurel's Gin Talking S. last Saturday. The undefeated juvenile, who earned 'TDN Rising Star' honors for her performance, is tenatively being pointed to the GII Forward Gal S. at Gulfstream Park Jan. 30, according to Cash is King managing partner Chuck Zacney.
“Talking to [trainer] John Servis, she came out of the race great,” Zacney told the TDN Tuesday. “She goes back in to training [Wednesday] at Parx, and I'm going to stop by and see her. The plan is to ship her to Palm Meadows for the winter in Florida–she should be there in about a week or so.”
If all goes to plan, Zacney said Cathryn Sophia is expected to compete in Gulfstream's docket of sophomore stakes races that includes the Feb. 27 GII Davona Dale S. and the Apr. 2 GII Gulfstream Park Oaks.
“They have a pretty good series there at Gulfstream,” he explained. “I know at the end of January, there's the seven-furlong [Forward Gal], and then there is a one-mile race, and a mile and one-sixteenth. We'll consider that and see if we're able to stretch her out and go from there.”
Zacney nabbed Afleet Alex for $75,000 as a Fasig-Tipton Midlantic juvenile in 2004 and returned to the same venue in September of 2014 to acquire Cathryn Sophia for $30,000 as a yearling. The bay returned immediate dividends with a 12 3/4-length debut score at Parx Oct. 30 and followed up with a 16 1/4-length romp this past weekend. But the path to success was not without some bumps in the road, rendering the filly an ongoing work in progress.
“When she was training as a 2-year-old in Ocala, she actually had some shin issues,” Zacney noted. “John has done a terrific job handling the filly, and he believes she's over the hump and she's training regularly. We're looking forward to a very good 3-year-old campaign.”
The owner said that while he is naturally pleased to have another talented young horse in his stable, he is particularly astonished by the ease at which she has won her two races.
“It's absolutely exciting,” Zacney admitted. “The first win was rather impressive, and I was certainly nervous about stepping up and worried about a bounce and all, but I knew rather quickly once the race started that she was going to win. I didn't expect 16 lengths or so. It was rather impressive. The amazing thing is just how easily she did it, and the jock never really asked her, so I think there's a lot of horse there and a lot of talent.” —@BMassamTDN
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
