City of Light‘s Cassiar Outduels Scottish Lassie in Aqueduct Allowance
W.S. Farish‘s Cassiar captured Thursday’s allowance feature at Belmont at the Big A, defeating Grade I winner Scottish Lassie by 1 1/4 lengths in the $85,360 contest.
The 3-year-old daughter of City of Light, coming off a runner-up finish in the Grade II Gulfstream Park Oaks, demonstrated impressive closing ability in the one-mile test. She sat third early before launching an outside bid at the quarter pole that carried her to victory in a final time of 1:35.89.
Scottish Lassie, the 2-5 favorite and winner of last year’s Grade I Frizette Stakes, set pressured fractions of :23.78 and :46.57 before fading to third. Dry Powder secured second place, with the top three finishers well clear of the remaining two runners.
Trained by Claude R. McGaughey III, Cassiar has now won two of her three career starts with earnings of $91,710. The filly was a $400,000 purchase at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale.
Cassiar hails from an accomplished family. Her dam, Nellie Cashman, was a Grade III Virginia Oaks winner with earnings of $349,839. She’s also produced Bendoog, a Grade I-placed runner in the UAE with over $817,000 in earnings.
The winner has a yearling half-sister by Mitole and a foal half-sister by Mandaloun.
The allowance victory continues the promising development of Cassiar, who appears poised for stakes competition following this convincing performance against quality opposition.
