Chuck Zacney has filly Cathryn Sophia on fast track

JOHN SERVIS and Smarty Jones rocketed across the landscape in 2004. A year later, Chuck Zacney and Afleet Alex came within the same 1 length of the Triple Crown, losing the Kentucky Derby by that margin instead of the Belmont Stakes where Smarty suffered his only career loss.

Zacney, who put together the partnership that bought Afleet Alex for $75,000, has not had a lot of luck at the track since then, blowing through a bunch of cash trying to find the next Alex. He purchased a yearling filly at the Timonium (Md.) sales in September 2014 for $30,000. When it came time to find a trainer for the filly he would name Cathryn Sophia, he thought of Servis.

"I've always been a fan of John's, always admired him," Zacney said. "I was looking for a trainer for this horse, didn't have a whole lot of expectations. John took his time and now we're getting the dividends."

That $30,000 purchase has turned into an unbeaten and untested 3-year-old filly, winning her three races by nearly 35 lengths and earner of $212,760.

"I didn't get a lot of positive feedback from the farm in Ocala (Fla.)," Zacney said of the filly's early training. "She had a lot of issues."

Zacney said they had discussed perhaps starting her in a $40,000 maiden claiming race where she could have been claimed.

"Three weeks before her first race, she worked really well," Zacney said.

There would be no claiming races.

Cathryn Sophia won her first start on Oct. 30 at Parx Racing by 12 3/4 lengths. Five weeks later, she won a Laurel stake by 16 1/4 lengths. On Jan. 30 at Gulfstream Park, the filly broke poorly and was behind horses for the first time. She blew the field away in the stretch, winning by 5 1/2 lengths.

Saturday at Gulfstream, 45 minutes south of where she trains at the Palm Meadows Training Center in Boynton Beach, Fla., Cathryn Sophia will get her biggest test yet in the 1-mile Davona Dale Stakes. And she will have a new jockey, Javier Castellano, America's dominant rider for several years now.

The filly, named for Zacney's niece, Cathryn McCarry, a freshman soccer player at Rowan, is by a sprinter and really does not have the look of a distance horse, but horses often outrun their looks and pedigree. If absolutely everything goes right with Cathryn Sophia, the Kentucky Oaks, the day before the Derby at Churchill Downs, looms in the distance.

"A little early for that,'' Zacney said. "We want to take it one race at a time. We're going to enjoy the ride, see how far it takes us. We'll see how the hand plays out.''

Later on the Gulfstream card, Mohaymen, the East Coast's best Derby hope, will put his unbeaten record on the line in the Fountain of Youth Stakes. If Mohaymen wins again, it would set up a pre-Derby showdown between what look like the two best 3-year-olds in the April 2 Florida Derby, also at Gulfstream.

Mohaymen is definitely going to be pointed for the race. And it looks as if the 2015 2-year-old champion, unbeaten Nyquist, is going to come east from his Southern California base. Nyquist was 5-for-5 last year, but never ran fast. Well, the colt ran really fast in his 3-year-old debut on Jan. 15 at Santa Anita.

After the first extended break in 15 years, Parx is scheduled to open for live racing Saturday. The last race was conducted on Dec. 22 and the track was closed for training on Jan. 2 to install a new safety rail.

"We have an opening," Parx director of racing Sam Elliott said of the track that has been year-round since Garden State Park closed. "We closed strong at the end of last year. The first day of training, it was like the first day of spring training."

Horses just got back to the track for training on Monday so handicapping will be a bit of a guessing game as the horses work themselves into shape. The track was originally supposed to reopen Feb. 13, but weather problems and issues with the surface discovered during the rail installation twice delayed the start. The purse structure, $300,000 per day, will be the second biggest on the East Coast.

jerardd@phillynews.com

@DickJerardi