EIGHTTOFASTTOCATCH joins elite company in Maryland Million Classic!

Arrive Back On The Scene!

It didn’t take long for BREAD AND BUTTER to start bringing home the bacon, as the elegant juvenile daughter of Pure Prize out of the Not For Love mare Bamba whipped her 10 rivals in her debut at Churchill Downs on Saturday, Sept. 21.

Renowned racing executive Charles Cella was willing to spend $240,000 for the Dark Hollow Farm-bred filly at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Two-Year-Olds in Training sale this past May. And the imposing chestnut trained by Lynn Whiting was primed for her six and a half-furlong maiden special weight test. Sent off as the 2-1 favorite, she took off running at the start, opened up by daylight in the first quarter and was hand ridden to the wire by David Flores, winning with ears pricked by two and a half lengths.

A full sister to 2011 Maryland-bred champion 2-year-old filly PLUM, the scopey filly looks to only get better. She is the fifth foal out of stakes-placed Bamba, who was also bred by Dark Hollow Farm, and the mare’s fifth winner. In addition to Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship Stakes winner PLUM, Bamba is the dam of $148,130-earner U Boat Alley, $90,430-earner Marianotojorge, and current 3-year-old Raven’s Dance, a maiden winner first time out this year. Bamba produced a 2013 colt by Warrior’s Reward and is back in foal to Paddy O’Prado on a March 27 cover.

There was never a doubt that EIGHTTOFASTTOCATCH was the one to catch in the 2013 edition of the $150,000 Maryland Million Classic, the richest offering on the 11-race card at Laurel Park on Saturday, Oct. 19. And his legion of supporters never had an anxious moment, as the 3-10 favorite with Forest Boyce in the saddle cruised in front at every call and won by three and a quarter lengths.

With the victory, the 7-year-old son of Not For Love bred by Dark Hollow Farm and Herringswell Stable became the fourth horse in the Maryland Million’s 28-year history to win the Classic twice, joining Timely Warning, Algar and Docent.

Owners Sylvia and Arnold Heft purchased the handsome chestnut from the Dark Hollow Farm consignment at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling sale in 2007, paying $47,000 for Too Fast to Catch’s son. Guided throughout his career by Tim Keefe, EIGHTTOFASTTOCATCH has made 44 starts, won 13, with seven seconds and four thirds, for earnings of $794,585, nearly 17 times his purchase price.

EIGHTTOFASTTOCATCH didn’t get his first stakes win until March 2011 when he scored in Laurel’s Harrison E. Johnson Memorial S. Campaigned exclusively in stakes ever since, he rallied later that year to gain his first Maryland Million Classic victory as the 4-5 favorite. He now boasts eight stakes wins on his record, and has placed in five others, including this year’s Grade 3 Pimlico Special.

The gelding is one of three stakes winners produced by Too Fast to Catch. The daughter of Nice Catch is also the dam of Bayonne, bred by Dark Hollow Farm and Herringswell Stable, and winner of the Pink Ribbon S., with career earnings of $201,783. Too Fast to Catch’s second of 14 foals was stakes-winning Storm Punch, who also placed in the Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash-G1 on his way to earning $310,619.

In all, Too Fast to Catch’s 13 offspring to race have earned nearly $1.85 million!