Wednesday, December 29, 2010
City Cool, a City Zip colt racing for Mike McCarty, cruised to a wire-to-wire, 7 ¼-length victory in Tuesday’s Riley Allison Futurity at Sunland Park.
Trained by Steve Asmussen, City Cool covered 6 ½ furlongs in 1:15.53 under jockey Ken Tohill while posting his first career stakes win.
“He’s an exceptional animal,” said Tohill of City Cool. “They told me he was pretty special, and he was.
“He’s much faster than he appears on paper,” he added. “I could have opened up five lengths on the backstretch. And, he was very professional in the post parade. When the gates opened, he stepped out so quickly, I could barely hold him back.”
City Cool set fractions of :22.45 and :45.22 en route to his second victory in five starts. The colt was bred in Kentucky by Hermitage Farm LLC, and he became the 28th stakes winner from 319 starters sired by City Zip. A 12-year-old son of the Mr. Prospector stallion Carson City who won the 2000 Hopeful Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Racecourse, City Zip is a half brother to 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper. He has sired the earners of more than $22.3 million from six crops, and he stands for a $15,000 fee at Lane’s End at Versailles, Kentucky.
City Cool’s dam, the 10-year-old Touch Gold mare Stylish Manner, has produced three winners from four starters. The colt’s half brother, Super Robusto, is a 4-year-old gelding by Smoke Glacken who ran third in this year’s listed $110,000 Harvey Arneault Memorial Stakes at Mountaineer Park in West Virginia.
City Cool’s second dam, Devil’s Nell, is a winning and stakes-placed 20-year-old daughter of Devil’s Bag who set a 4 ½-furlong track record at Hollywood Park in 1992. Devil’s Nell’s seven starters include Kiss The Devil, a half sister to Stylish Manner who won the Grade 3, $168,500 Early Times Mint Julep Handicap on the turf at Churchill Downs in ’03.
Devil’s Nell is a half sister to the late Lady Trilby, a filly by Grenfall who won two stakes at Hollywood Park in 1984 and ran third in the ’85 La Brea Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita.
City Cool traces back to his third dam, the stakes-winning Ballydonnell mare Tota Nell. A 1964 Kentucky-bred foal, Tota Nell produced stakes winners Olympic Princess and Printo.
City Cool broke his maiden in his third start, winning a 6-furlong maiden special weight sprint by 8 ½ lengths at Churchill Downs on October 31. The $64,320 winner’s share of the Riley Allison Futurity purse increased his earnings to $111,948.
It’s My Party, R Skydiver, Mason’s Pegasus, Behold de Buy, Trouble Rules, Lion Hall, Trustee Tom, Big Daddy Norman, Dixie Groom, Race For Jake, and Roarin’ Bayou completed the order of finish.
It’s My Party is a gray or roan colt by Unbridled Energy who has earned $47,730 from one win in five races for his owners, Bobby and Vickie Hammer. It’s My Party was a 2 ½-length maiden winner going 6 furlongs at Churchill Downs on November 4.
A gelding by Benchmark campaigned by F. Daniel Frost and S. Fifer, R Skydiver was coming off of a second-place finish to El Rancho in the 6-furlong, $62,838 ATBA Fall Sales Stakes (R) at Turf Paradise on October 16. R Skydiver has won two of six races and has banked $51,668, and his stakes resume also includes a second-place finish in the August 22 Gold Rush Futurity at Arapahoe Park near Denver.