2018 Travers Stakes Winner
Catholic Boy was one of the more unusual classic level horses of his generation, a colt who could win at the top level on both turf and dirt and who became famous for switching surfaces at exactly the right moment. He was a bay colt born in April of 2015. His owner was Robert V. LaPenta, the longtime racing partner of many top operations, and his trainer was Jonathan Thomas, a young horseman who took the colt all the way from a juvenile maiden race to a Grade 1 classic win at Saratoga. His sire was More Than Ready, a brilliant sprinter from his own racing days who has since become one of the most successful sires in the world. His dam was Song of Bernadette, by Preakness winner Bernardini. The pedigree gave him the speed of his sire crossed over the classic stamina of his dam side, and on the racetrack he proved he could use both.
His career began on dirt, where he won the Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct as a two year old in 2017. He was pointed for the Triple Crown the following spring, but a rough trip in the Florida Derby convinced his connections to switch him to grass for the summer. The move worked beautifully. He won the Pennine Ridge Stakes at Belmont Park and then the Belmont Derby on the same day as the Belmont Stakes, beating a deep field of three year olds going a mile and a quarter on turf. With his summer schedule wide open, his connections decided to take a bold shot and bring him back to dirt for the Travers Stakes at Saratoga, the historic Mid Summer Derby. Few horses have ever switched surfaces that abruptly at the highest level, but Catholic Boy did it perfectly. Tracking the front running Mendelssohn, he took over inside the final quarter mile and drew off to win the Travers Stakes by four lengths. The win made him only the third American three year old in history to win a Grade 1 on both turf and dirt in the same season.
He raced on at four, winning the Dinner Party Stakes at Pimlico and adding more Grade 2 form before being retired with six graded stakes wins. He was sent to Claiborne Farm in Kentucky to begin his stud career, where he stood at a friendly fee and quickly began producing useful runners on both turf and dirt. He was later sold to Harris Farms in California to continue his stallion career on the West Coast. Catholic Boy is the kind of horse who shows up rarely in any era. He was a high class dirt juvenile, a Grade 1 turf champion at three, and the colt who walked into the Travers Stakes off two grass races and beat a deep field on the dirt. He proved that, every now and then, a great horse really can do it all.
Sources:
Sire: More Than Ready
Grandsire: Southern Halo
Dam: Song of Bernadette
Damsire: Bernardini
Other relatives: None specified
Sex: Colt
Foaled: 2015
Country: United States
Colour: Bay
Breeder: Twin Creeks Farm
Owner: Robert LaPenta
Trainer: Jonathan Thomas
Jockey: Javier Castellano
Record: 12 starts, 4 wins, 3 seconds, 1 third
Earnings: $1,600,000
Major races: Belmont Derby, Travers Stakes, Pennine Ridge Stakes