Ce Ce a Third-Generation Success for Hirsch Family

Bo Hirsch's homebred Ce Ce has kept her family's success alive and thriving. The 4-year-old filly is a third-generation grade 1-winning mare who collected her second consecutive top-level success April 18 at Oaklawn Park with a head victory in the Apple Blossom Handicap (G1).

"I'm tickled pink. Not only have my reasonable expectations come true, but my wildest expectations have come true," Hirsch said of the filly's success.

Ce Ce is by Elusive Quality out of Hirsch's homebred Belong To Me mare Miss Houdini, a mating Hirsch's longtime bloodstock agent Kathy Berkey suggested. Miss Houdini made headlines when she won the Del Mar Debutante (G1) as a juvenile. Her dam, the Lord Avie mare Magical Maiden, was a $26,000 2-year-old purchase by Hirsch's father—the late Clement Hirsch—that went on to win the Hollywood Starlet (G1) and Las Virgenes (G1) stakes.

"This is, to me, a truly special family. I can only think, off the top, of one other case of a three generational grade 1-winning family, and that's the Ogden Phipps mare Personal Ensign," Berkey said, referring the champion mare who produced multiple grade 1 winner My Flag, dam of champion Storm Flag Flying. "To me it's so special and so rare to have three generations of grade 1-winning mares."

The Apple Blossom was not the first major victory Hirsch experienced with Ce Ce's family in Hot Springs, Ark. Miss Houdini's second foal, Papa Clem, broke through in the 2009 Arkansas Derby (G2), rallying from fifth to wear down the pacesetter and favorite Old Fashioned to win by a half-length. The Smart Strike colt finished fourth in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) next out, earned a grade 1 placing in the Malibu Stakes (G1), and retired as a millionaire after a victory in the San Fernando Stakes (G2) at the beginning of his 4-year-old year.

"Papa Clem was a tough horse. They had trouble with him biting people," said Hirsch, who boards his horses at Columbiana Farm in Paris, Ky., where he keeps six mares. "I was told when he was first on the farm that they really liked this horse because there was one horse in the bunch, a colt, that just kind of wanted to be the head of the troop, that would chase all the other horses around. He'd come and start to chase Papa Clem, and (Papa Clem) would just stay there and the other colt would back down. They used to tell me that's a great sign, it means this horse means business, and he did. Miss Houdini was really the same way.

"Ce Ce's a little kinder horse than them. She's just very professional from what I hear from (jockey) Victor Espinoza. She's smart and she does what she's told. I'm just very lucky and fortunate to have a mare like this."

Espinoza has been aboard Ce Ce, based at trainer Michael McCarthy's Southern California stable, for each of her six lifetime starts. The chestnut filly has won all three of her starts this year. After taking an allowance optional claiming event, she ran past grade 1 winner Hard Not to Like to win the Beholder Mile (G1) by 3 1/4 lengths for her first stakes win. She then overcame the outside post of 14 in the Apple Blossom and got up from fifth in a four-wide trip to edge Ollie's Candy, one of five other grade 1 winners in the field, for a gutsy head victory.

"Michael McCarthy, the trainer, was so high on her, so confident. I kept saying, 'We're not going to beat this horse today,' and then she beats them," Hirsch said. "(Saturday) I thought we were going to get beat there the last 40 yards or so. I didn't think she was going to make it. Victor Espinoza just gave her a wonderful ride and did exactly what he wanted to do and what the trainer wanted to do. It worked out, she broke well, and we got very lucky that it worked out that way."

Hirsch said he sees the same powerful build in Ce Ce that he saw in Miss Houdini.

"Miss Houdini is 20-years-old, and to produce one like this late in her life is just so wonderful," Hirsch said. "Kathy talked me into breeding to Elusive Quality, which is (like) two grandparents having a kid, and it worked out. She never had a problem with breeding to an older sire."

Ce Ce, born in 2016 when Miss Houdini was 16, is the 10th registered foal out of her dam and the fourth to earn black-type. Her full sister, Stradella Road, placed in the Lady of Shamrock Stakes and earned $130,169. Her Victory Gallop half sister and Miss Houdini's first foal, Magical Victory, placed in the E. B. Johnston Stakes.

Berkey said Miss Houdini appears to have passed on her mental toughness to her foals.

"She didn't run very often, but we saw in her how tenacious she was in not letting a horse get by her. Papa Clem wasn't always successful at not letting someone get by him, but he always tried very hard, and I'm seeing that in Ce Ce also," Berkey said.

"I remember before (Ce Ce) ever ran when I was in California I saw her work out of the starting gate," Berkey added. "I was at the back of the starting gate with Mike McCarthy, and as she went away from the gate I thought to myself she looked so much like Miss Houdini from behind because she's so strong and has so much power taking off."

Ce Ce was one of the last few crops from Elusive Quality. The Darley stallion died at age 25 in 2018.

Berkey said when she chose Elusive Quality for Miss Houdini, she liked the cross of his sire, Gone West, and grandsire, Mr. Prospector, with Danzig, the paternal grandsire of Miss Houdini. The Mr. Prospector line had also proved successful with Miss Houdini before when Mr. Prospector's son, Smart Strike, sired Papa Clem. 

"For the most part I've always had the most success with the Mr. Prospector line and I was getting to the point with Elusive Quality where it was getting harder and harder to find the more direct Mr. Prospectors," Berkey said. "I wanted to go to a Gone West line if I could and I'm always limited with (Miss Houdini) physically where I can take her. I need stallions that have a little size, a little leg, that are a little bit lighter-bodied. He seemed like a good way to go. We went twice and we got two stakes horses. I wish he was around so I could continue to go back to him."

Following Ce Ce, Miss Houdini produced a 2017 Liam's Map  gelding now named Riggins that agent Steve Young purchased for $225,000 from Columbiana's consignment to the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. She also has a 2019 American Pharoah  colt and is currently in foal to Midnight Lute . The mare slipped her Street Sense  foal that was due this year.

Riggins made his first start April 5 for owner Harrell Ventures and trainer Todd Pletcher and was unplaced in a one-mile maiden special weight on Gulfstream Park's turf.

The family traces back to a long list of stakes winners. Miss Houdini is the granddam of two graded stakes winners, Hot Springs and Ready Intaglio, and her half sister produced group 2 winner and group 1-placed Moviesta. Ce Ce's third dam, the Magesterial mare Gils Magic, produced three stakes winners as well as the notable winning Miswaki mare Magical Flash, dam of six stakes winners including Glinda the Good, who in turn produced 2017 champion juvenile male Good Magic .

Though Ce Ce will eventually join the Hirsch broodmare band to continue the successful family line, her next goals remain on the racetrack. With the COVID-19 pandemic closing most racetracks and limiting racing options, Hirsch said he is keeping his eye on one of Del Mar's summer features.

"I'd love to have her run in the Clement L. Hirsch (G1) named after my father," Hirsch said. "That would be special for me and my family. Then of course obviously the Breeders' Cup after that."