Ritvo Seeks Travers Weekend Stakes Glory

Trainer Kathy Ritvo never got to win a race at Saratoga with Mucho Macho Man, who went winless in three career tries at the Spa before going on to become a multiple Grade 1 winner and make the heart transplant recipient the first female to train a Breeders' Cup Classic winner.

This weekend, Ritvo will have two chances to return to her south Florida base with a stakes victory, saddling 3-year-olds Fast Anna in Saturday's Grade 1, $500,000 Ketel One King's Bishop and New York-bred Little Daddy in Sunday's $250,000 Albany.

Fast Anna is an unbeaten but untested speedster owned by Frank Calabrese. A runaway winner of his first two starts, each in front-running fashion at Gulfstream Park, the Medaglia d'Oro colt will be making his stakes debut in the seven-furlong King's Bishop.

"He's doing fantastic. He's had two good works and he really seems to like the track here," Ritvo said. "He likes the weather, and he's been doing good. I'm excited to see him run. Everything's going really well. It's hard to imagine him going into a race any better."

Fast Anna will break from post 6 as the 6-1 fourth choice on the morning line in a field of eight sophomore sprinters that includes graded stakes winners Wildcat Red, Noble Moon and Coup de Grace and graded stakes-placed C. Zee and Myositis Dan.

"He is a really good horse," Ritvo said. "It's a race, and anything can happen. I definitely have respect for the other horses but he doing as good as he can and he has the class. He deserves the chance to run here."

Little Daddy will be facing state-breds for the first time in his career, having run in open company in each of his five starts, all at Gulfstream Park for owner-trainer Carlo Vaccarezza. He won his debut by 3 ¼ lengths at odds of 16-1 on March 15 and followed with an entry-level allowance victory 15 days later.

Since then, the son of Scat Daddy has placed in three stakes: the Sir Bear and Cherokee Run behind C. Zee, and the English Channel going 1 1/16 miles on turf.

"When he came up here he just kind of fell into the program and he's doing well," Ritvo said. "He'll do anything you ask him to do."

Ritvo noted that both Fast Anna and Little Daddy have flourished since arriving in Saratoga the first week of August, each breezing twice over the main track.

"They've both been training super since we've been here," she said. "They're different horses, but they both have been training equally good. I think the weather has perked them up a little. Their first works were good and on a deeper track before the break. Then I waited and let them work after the break in case we have a little moisture in the track. They both showed up, twice, and came back good. They are going into it really good."