Cassatt holds on in Houston Ladies Classic

Cassatt bounded home in the Houston Ladies Classic (Sam Houston/Coady Photography)

Trainer Larry Jones continued his tradition of
sending talented mares to Sam Houston on Saturday evening when Fox Hill Farms’
Cassatt (Tapit) captured the $400,000
Houston Ladies
Classic by a neck. Two years ago, Jones and Rick
Porter of Fox Hill Farms captured the inaugural running of the race with Joyful Victory.

Under a confident ride by regular rider Kerwin Clark,
Cassatt broke sharply from the far outside post and immediately went to the
lead, recording fractions of :24 1/5; 47 4/5 and 1:11 4/5. The gray filly held off a huge late run
from Angelica Zapata (Sharp Humor) to score by a neck on the wire in a final
time of 1:44 4/5 for 1 1/16 miles on the fast dirt. She paid $3.40 as the 3-5
favorite.

“The wire came just in time,” Clark admitted.

“I was glad to see the wire hurry up and get there because they went pretty
quick,” Jones added. “They made a race out of it. She’s a classy filly and just
now starting to get the hang of it.”

This was the third stakes in a row for Cassatt following romping wins in the Zia
Park Oaks and Tiffany Lass S. to close out her sophomore campaign. She also
triumphed in the Monmouth Oaks (G3) last season and now boasts a 9-6-1-0,
$603,033, career record.

Exodus had no trouble taking his stakes debut in the Allen’s Landing (Sam Houston/Coady Photography)

There were three additional stakes at Sam Houston on Saturday evening, and
Jones, Clark and Fox Hill Farm all took home a second win when Exodus (Medaglia
d’Oro) triumphed by 2 1/4 lengths in the $50,000
Allen’s Landing
S.

The bay sophomore took command soon after the start and never looked back en
route to finishing seven furlongs on the fast dirt in 1:10 2/5. Exodus was the
2-5 favorite and gave back $2.80 to his supporters.

“We think he’s pretty special,” Jones admitted. “He’s a half to (Grade 1
hero) Cross Traffic and his mother (Stop Traffic [Cure the Blues]) is a Grade 1
winner. He went pretty quickly, but we knew (trainer) Al (Stall’s) horse (Waging
War [War Front]) was pretty fast. We figured with the outside post, we’d be OK.
He was rolling”

Heitai outclassed his rivals in the Turf Sprint (Sam Houston/Coady Photography)

Rowell Enterprises’ homebred Heitai (Fusaichi Pegasus) showed his class with
a one-length victory in the $75,000

Turf Sprint to kick off the stakes action. Tom Amoss won last year’s edition of
the race with Sum
of the Parts and sent out another capable contender
in Heitai.

The five-year-old gelding made the early lead and was never
challenged, taking the five-furlong sprint in :56 3/5 on the firm turf under
jockey James Graham.

“He won pretty convincingly,” Graham said. “He’s pretty fast by himself; even faster with me on him!”

Amoss recently assumed training duties of Heitai and has
only had the Louisiana-bred sprinter in his barn for three weeks, but clearly liked what he saw.

“He’s brilliantly fast,” the horseman noted. “Maybe one nervous moment when
he left the gate as he had to work a little to make the lead. But he ran really
well.”