Get Stormy, Calimonco Have First Winners

The races faced by the first winners for freshman sires Get Stormy   and Calimonco   could not have been more different.

Get Stormy's first runner Get Sassy persevered in a battle down the stretch, grabbing the lead only a couple jumps before the wire, while Calimonco's My California took a commanding early lead and rolled to 9 1/4-length victory.

Get Sassy won a $27,000, 4 1/2-furlong maiden special weight race at Presque Island Downs for owners Duncan Lloyd and Blazing Meadows Farm. She is trained by Tim Hamm and was bred in Pennsylvania by John Penn, who sold her to Lloyd as a weanling for $5,000 at the 2014 Keeneland November breeding stock sale.

Making her first start, Get Sassy sat in a rail-hugging fourth place behind the leaders through much of the race as the leaders took the field through fractions of :22.87 and :46.23. As the field came out of the turn, jockey Mario Pino took Get Sassy off the rail, where running room had evaporated, and began a furious rally at the leader and favorite Diamond Dollar. Get Sassy got a neck in front, stopping the timer in :52.41. 

Get Sassy is out of the Quiet American mare A Little Action, who has three foals to race and two winners. Her third dam, stakes-placed Artful Pleasure, is the dam of grade I winner Peeping Tom. Her family has also produced graded stakes winners Sun King, Traitor, and Ocean Drive.

Get Stormy, a multiple grade I winning son of Stormy Atlantic  , stands at Crestwood Farm near Lexington, Ky., for $5,000.

Heavy favorite My California led seven challengers through fractions of :22.01 and :45.30 in the five-furlong, $56,000 maiden special weight race at Santa Anita Park before pulling away from the field to win by daylight in :58.06. 

The Mercedes Stables homebred was making her second start. She is trained by Robertino Diodoro, who is currently the meet's leading trainer by percentage of winners and percentage of in the money finishes. My California was ridden by Tyler Baze.

The winner is the first foal of Give My Regards (Smart Strike), who was also bred and raced by Mercedes Stables. She had been offered in foal to Sky Mesa   at the 2015 Keeneland November sale and bought back at $55,000. Give My Regards is out of unraced Broadway Hoofer, the dam of graded stakes winner Broadway Empire and stakes winner Cinderella's Dream.

Calimonco is a graded stakes-placed son of Storm Cat. He won the Wickerr Stakes at Del Mar before finishing third in the Citation Handicap (gr. II) and the Del Mar Mile Handicap (gr. II). Calimonco stands at Ballena Vista Farm in California for $1,500.