In a most dominating fashion, the elegant Catholic Boy powered down the Saratoga stretch, widening with each stride, to post a very convincing four length victory in the 149th running of the G1 Runhappy Travers Stakes. Winner in his previous outing 7/7/2018 in the G1 Belmont Derby on the turf, Catholic Boy is giving every indication he is a throwback type of colt who appears equally at home on the dirt or the lawn.
His resume currently includes three graded turf victories (G3 With Anticipation, G3 Pennine Ridge, and G1 Belmont Derby) and two graded dirt wins (G2 Remsen and G1 Travers), posting a record of 9-6-1-0. Only twice off the board, he was defeated only 1 1/2 lengths in the G1 Breeders Juvenile Turf when finishing fourth to the very impressive Mendelssohn. His only other unplaced performance came earlier this year in the G1 Florida Derby where he was a well beaten fourth to Audible, an outing which has subsequently proven to be so uncharacteristic that one suspects some adverse issues were in play on that occasion. Clearly the versatility demonstrated by this son of More Than Ready-Song of Bernadette (by Bernardini) leaves tremendous options for this bay youngster. While not capable of giving proof to the assumption, I suspect that one would search long, hard and fruitlessly to find another sophomore who was a G1 winner on turf and dirt at such an early stage in his career.
Another from the same mold is the aforementioned Mendelssohn, the regally bred son of the prematurely deceased stallion Scat Daddy out of the Tricky Creek mare Leslie's Lady, such lineage making him a half sibling to future Hall of Fame mare Beholder as well as to the highly successful stallion Into Mischief. A $3,000,000 Keeneland September Sale purchase in 2016, he began his career in England, breaking his maiden before placing second in the prestigious G1 Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket. His next start found him shipping to Del Mar in November where he demonstrated great quality while capturing the G1 Breeder's Cup Turf. He followed this performance with consecutive victories to begin his sophomore year, the highlight of which was an 18 1/2 length win in the G2 UAE Derby. Brought to the G1 Kentucky Derby, he was banged around badly at the start of the race, could never get involved, and was eased and protected for the duration of the race. He returned to America where he finished a well beaten third in the G3 Dwyer on 7/7/2018. Returning again in the G1 Runhappy Travers he ran like a horse who had finally figured this dirt game out, setting the pace while stalked by Catholic Boy and, while eventually giving way to that one, proving
good enough to securely hold the place position. Thus we have another highly versatile colt, a G1 winner on turf and G2 winner and G1 stakes placed on dirt. It will be most interesting to see what trainer Aidan O'Brien and the Coolmore connections decide about the future of this outstanding colt.
Following are photos which show highlights from the Travers.
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