Cuff Me: Maiden Win 6/11/2009 (Photo: Adam Coglianese)
On Saturday CUFF ME will be making the second start of her 2010 campaign when she squares off against nine other three-year-old fillies, including She Be Wild (winner of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and voted 2009 Champion Two-Year-Old Filly), in the $175,000 one mile and one-sixteenth Grade 3 Florida Oaks at Tampa Bay Downs.
A bay New York-bred daughter of Officer owned by a partnership of Michael Dubb, Stuart Grant, Bethlehem Stables, LLC and John S. Selinger, Cuff Me dominated in all three of her starts at two. She won her debut in June for trainer Anthony Dutrow by more than six lengths and, after a freshening, bested allowance rivals in October by more than thirteen. Both races were at six furlongs over sloppy tracks at Belmont against state-breds. In December Cuff Me’s move into open stakes company looked effortless, as she wired the six-furlong $64,000 Silent Turn Stakes at Aqueduct – her first start over a dry track – in 1:10 1/5. Cuff Me’s three-year-old debut, the six-furlong Grade 3 Old Hat Stakes at Gulfstream on January 9th, was not, however, her day. Breaking mid-pack in a field of eleven, she never seemed to hit her best stride, and was hampered in the stretch. She finished fourth under regular pilot Ramon Dominguez and earned her lowest career Beyer Speed Figure. After twenty days off Cuff Me returned to the work tab and has posted five five-furlong breezes at regular intervals at Palm Meadows. Kent Desormeaux will ride the filly for the first time in her two-turn debut and the pair will break from post three. Cuff Me is second choice on the morning line (after She Be Wild) at 7-to-2.
Cuff Me was bred by JMJ Racing Stable and sold for $20,000 at the 2008 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. She is the second winner produced by her dam She’sgotgoldfever (Gold Fever) and has earned $95,150 in four starts.
