From Santa Anita Publicity
ARCADIA, Calif. (May 21, 2023) — Longtime trainer Jeff Bonde reported all was well with the promising 2-year-old filly Crazy Hot after her sparkling 10 ¾-length debut win here Saturday for owners Rusty Brown and Cory Thabit.
“Everything is well. She looks good,” Bonde said from Clocker’s Corner.
Crazy Hot was bet down to the 9-5 favorite for her debut in Saturday’s third race, a 4 ½-furlong dash for Cal-bred 2-year-old fillies. She did not disappoint. The daughter of Kentucky-based stallion Goldencents chased the early pace after breaking from the outside stall under Geovanni Franco. But at about the three-eighths pole, Crazy Hot unleashed a sweeping move to blow past the field. She continued to extend her advantage through the stretch before crossing the wire in a final time of 52.44 seconds.
Crazy Hot was purchased by Bonde last year for $75,000 at the Fasig-Tipton California Fall Yearlings and Horses of All Ages Sale. She is campaigned by Rusty Brown and Cory Thabit.
“She is a nice-balanced horse and well made,” Bonde explained for why he bought the filly. “I just thought she was a good prospect and we bought here.”
Bred by Thomas W. Bachman, Crazy Hot is out the New York-bred stakes winner Harbor Mist, by Rockport Harbor. She arrived at Santa Anita this winter and had worked six times for her debut.
Bonde, 68, said he had reason to expect a big performance from Crazy Hot on Saturday. On April 29, Bonde won the second 2-year-old race of the season with Fly a Fantasy, a daughter of Smiling Tiger who rolled by 3 ¾ lengths as the odds-on favorite. Crazy Hot and Fly a Fantasy had been working together before their respective debuts.
“The way Crazy Hot had worked in the morning, yeah I was expecting a good effort from her,” Bonde said. “She’d been working with a filly I’d already won with at the meet, so we thought it was going to take a really good filly to beat her.”
Bonde, 68, has won 1,921 races since embarking on his training career in 1974. His all-time top earner is Smiling Tiger, a multiple Grade 1-winning sprinter who banked $1,480,704 from 2009-2012. He is now a stallion at Harris Farms in California.
Bonde enters Sunday’s card with three wins in nine starts at Hollywood Meet. In its heyday, Bonde said his stable typically numbered around 100 horses. He currently has about 25 in the barn, which he is making the most of.
“Being 68 now, I want to throw my punches when I can,” Bonde said.