The Week in Review by T.D. Thornton
Five months ago, when Classic Causeway (Giant's Causeway) caught bettors napping on the final Saturday of the Saratoga season by unleashing a 6 1/2-length, front-running smackdown at 13-1 odds in his first career start, trainer Bryan Lynch told TDN he knew he had a “collector's item” on his hands.
Although a shimmering debut didn't hurt, the significance of Lynch's appraisal was pegged to the colt being one of only three named foals from the abbreviated final crop of prolific sire Giant's Causeway.
Now, after a grace-under-pressure performance in the Feb. 12 GIII Sam F. Davis S. at Tampa Bay Downs that launched Classic Causeway into the elite-level tier of GI Kentucky Derby contenders, that assessment needs to be recalculated with the colt's sky's-the-limit potential carrying more weight in the equation.
The Sam Davis has never produced a Derby winner. Of late it's even gained a reputation as a “trap” race known for derailing some pretty decent Derby contenders. Going into this year's running, the last four favorites (and five of the last six) had lost the Davis. In fact, for one of them, the Davis was part of a dizzying 10-loss tailspin before an improbable mid-career turnaround. That would be the 2019 off-the-board chalk Knicks Go (Paynter), who last Thursday–three years and one day after his lackluster Davis defeat–got crowned as 2021's Horse of the Year.
The burden of favoritism had been too much to bear for Classic Causeway in his second and third lifetime starts, but each of those losing efforts left enough of a positive impression that the homebred for Kentucky West Racing (Patrick O'Keefe) and Clarke Cooper was capable of better things in his sophomore season.
In the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity S. Oct. 9, Classic Causeway ambitiously forged to the front from post 13 over Keeneland's short-stretch configuration for 1 1/16 miles when facing winners and attempting two turns for the first time. He lasted for third behind well-meant victor Rattle N Roll (Connect).
After Lynch schooled Classic Causeway to relax while still remaining a pace presence, the colt broke running from post one in the Nov. 27 GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. and showed he was capable of conceding the lead. Responding effectively in stalk mode, he tipped out to the three path on the far turn and was on the move with 'TDN Rising Star' and eventual winner Smile Happy (Runhappy) at the head of the lane. Classic Causeway couldn't match strides with a very impressive undefeated colt at Churchill Downs that day, but he gave Smile Happy a run for his money until the eighth pole and was hardly disgraced in defeat.
Off those efforts, a brief break, and a series of breezes up to seven furlongs at Palm Meadows, Classic Causeway was bet down to favoritism for the Sam Davis (his price actually drifted up twice during the running of the race, from 6-5 to 3-2 before closing at 8-5, which is something you rarely see happen to a front-running fave in a $600,000+ win pool). He flashed out of the gate like a pro, then was immediately confronted by a keyed-up long shot from the outermost post. Jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. didn't use Classic Causeway overly hard to maintain the lead, but he didn't back away from the fight, either, allowing his colt to spar spiritedly at the head of a closely bunched pack of pursuers.
Classic Causeway ripped through the first quarter of the 1 1/16-mile race in a sprint-like :22.66, then toned down the middle two fractions to a more sensible :24.01 and :24.84, briefly losing the lead for a stride or two at the half-mile chart call. Still confidently handled at the head of the homestretch, he spun out to the three path, with three legitimate win threats hot on his heels.
One right-handed crack of the crop was enough to elicit an energetic spurt out of Classic Causeway three-sixteenths out, and when the colt drifted out to the five path while still in control, Ortiz gave him several more right-handed reminders upon cresting the furlong grounds, which had the effect of producing a “Wow!” gear that punctuated a visually impressive burst to the wire. The winning margin was 3 3/4 geared-down lengths in 1:42.80, good for an 88 Beyer Speed Figure.
Classic Causeway's fourth quarter split was :25.31. Of particular note was his in-the-clear final sixteenth in :5.98, the only sub-six-seconds clocking among this season's Derby preps at 1 1/16 miles from the Breeders' Cup onward.
“The [early] fractions had me a little bit worried,” Lynch said. “But his body language, the way his ears were twitching down the backside, gave me the feeling [Ortiz] had plenty of horse,” Lynch said post-race.
Lynch said Sunday morning that Classic Causeway is likely to return to Tampa in four weeks for the GII Tampa Bay Derby. “He's doing great,” the trainer said from his Palm Meadows stable. “He never left an oat and looks happy and spunky.”
Only Phantom Jet (1987), Speedy Cure (1991), Marco Bay (1993), Thundering Storm (1996), Burning Roma (2001) and Destin (2016) have accomplished the Sam Davis-Tampa Derby double.
Classic Causeway's win underscores the Kentucky Jockey Club as the key juvenile race among the preps for the '22 Derby. Two other colts from that race also scored in stakes in their next starts: Third-placer White Abarrio (Race Day) won the GIII Holy Bull S. at Gulfstream Feb. 5; sixth-place finisher Call Me Midnight (Midnight Lute) upset the GIII Lecomte S. at the Fair Grounds Jan. 22.
Smile Happy, the Kentucky Jockey Club S. winner, is currently rated No. 1 on the latest TDN Derby Top 12. He'll be in action this coming Saturday in an absolutely loaded edition of the GII Risen Star S. at the Fair Grounds. Three other Top 12 horses are entered, and Smile Happy will almost certainly have to win—and win emphatically–to keep from losing his top-of-the-totem-pole spot to Classic Causeway.
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