Ce Ce Stands Alone as 2021 Champion Female Sprinter

It takes a special horse to win an Eclipse Award, and Bo Hirsch's homebred Ce Ce  is just that. The daughter of the late Elusive Quality  and a two-time grade 1 winner at 4, won the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) at Del Mar, topping rival—and defending champion and fellow Eclipse Award nominee—Gamine  on her way to being named champion female sprinter of 2021.

Ce Ce's pedigree is laden with class. She is out of Hirsch's homebred Belong to Me  mare Miss Houdini, a winner at the grade 1 level, having taken the Del Mar Debutante at 2 in 2002. Miss Houdini is also the dam of 2009 Arkansas Derby (G1) winner Papa Clem  and is in turn out of the Lord Avie mare Magical Maiden, who was purchased by Hirsch's father—the late Clement Hirsch—and went on to win the 1991 Hollywood Starlet (G1) and the 1992 Las Virgenes (G1) stakes .

Trained by Michael McCarthy, Ce Ce started her 2021 season at Santa Anita where she was an easy winner of a seven-furlong allowance optional claiming race in mid-April. That set the table for a stretch-out effort in the 1 1/16-mile Santa Maria Stakes (G2) that didn't pan out. Kept around one turn, Ce Ce shipped to South Florida and was a 3 1/4-length winner of the Princess Rooney Stakes (G2) and then headed to Saratoga where she wasn't embarrassed in a third-place finish behind Gamine in the seven-panel Ketel One Ballerina Handicap (G1).

Prior to the Breeders' Cup she was a handy winner of the Oct. 3 Chillingworth Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita. 

Facing heavily favored Gamine in the Breeders' Cup, Ce Ce settled off a scorching pace of :22.31 and :44.92 in the seven-furlong race. She came with a strong rally under Victor Espinoza to win going away by 2 1/2 lengths in 1:21. Gamine was third. Now 6, Ce Ce is in training at Santa Anita for a 2022 campaign. Her four wins from six starts in 2021 netted $888,000. Her career line reads 8-1-3 from 16 starts with earnings of $1,753,100. In 11 starts at a mile or less she is 7-0-1.

"She's just very professional, from what I hear from Victor Espinoza," Hirsch said. "She's smart and she does what she's told. I'm just very lucky and fortunate to have a mare like this."