TDN RISING STARS

July 27, 2011 - Saratoga, Race 3, Msw, USD $51,000, 5f

J C's Pride, C, 2011, by Henny Hughes

1st Dam: Hi Lili, by Silver Deputy
2nd Dam: Snit, by Fit to Fight
3rd Dam: Princess Roberta, by Roberto

Owner: Joseph Bucci
Breeder: Extern Developments (KY)
Trainer: Robert Barbara

J C's Pride breezed an eighth in :10.1 at Fasig-Tipton's Midlantic Sale and wound up selling to Joseph Bucci for $200,000. The chestnut got right to work at Belmont a few weeks later and went postward as the 2-1 second choice in his July 1 opener. The 3-5 favorite that day was Overdriven (Tale of the Cat), who scored by 3 1/2 lengths, but runner-up J C's Pride wound up 13 lengths clear of the others (video), and that effort looked pretty solid when Overdriven went on to land the GII Sanford S. at Saratoga last Sunday. The bettors made J C's Pride 1-5 this time, and the colt was up to the task. After an alert start from the three hole, he was quickly in front, and was moving effortlessly through splits of :21.87 and :44.65 over an admittedly glib Saratoga surface. J C's Pride turned for home under a motionless Jose Lezcano and kept up a steady beat to establish a new track record, lowering the previous mark by 0.17 seconds. "[Lezcano] said if he bore down on him at the eighth pole, he would have went in :55," said winning trainer Bobby Barbara. "I'm glad he didn't. He's a really nice colt. He's a sweetheart; he's like an old horse. He does everything so right. He handles himself with a lot of class." J C's Pride, whose winning dam is a half-sister to the solid turf performers Blind Date (Not for Love) and Sales Tax (High Yield), was also a $190,00 KEENOV weanling and $90,000 KEESEP yearling. Bucci, who founded the upstate New York-based American Rock Salt company, has been in the racing game for a few years. "I've trained for him for five or six years, but he decided this winter that he'd try to get some better horses, so we bought four at Midlantic," explained Barbara, who also expects bigger things from another Bucci colorbearer, the 4-year-old Avenging Spirit (Tapit). The affable conditioner was high on J C's Pride from the beginning. "I thought he'd win first time out, then run in the Sanford," Barbara recalled. "That was until Todd [Pletcher] brought Overdriven to the paddock. I thought that horse looked like the real McCoy, so I guess it's okay that we ran second." Barbara indicated that no decision has been made yet as to where the stylish colt will run next. "We'll see how he comes out of it and talk about it," he said. The winner's dam, Hi Lili, has a Tapit yearling filly. No report was filed after the mare was bred back to Henny Hughes, but she was covered by Lookin At Lucky this past spring. Lifetime Record: 2-1-1-0, $42,000.