Caravel All Heart in Shakertown

In Keeneland's second consecutive race Saturday with a Breeders' Cup-winning mare from last November returning to the scene of her greatest triumph for her 2023 debut, CARAVEL (m, 6, Mizzen Mast-Zeezee Zoomzoom, by Congrats) won the Lexington oval's GII Shakertown S. She was last seen taking the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint over this course and distance Nov. 5. It was deja vu, as just like last November, when Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper) won the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint in the race immediately preceding the Turf Sprint on that card, Goodnight Olive won the GI Madison S. in the race immediately preceding the Shakertown on Saturday's card.

Caravel earned a 107 Beyer Speed Figure in the Breeders' Cup, her first time beating the boys. She was 42-1 that day, but 2-1 Saturday in her return to the races, again against males, after working well at Turfway Park on the all-weather surface since February and securing a bullet in her lone Keeneland work: a :48 1/5 (1/4) over the all-weather training track Apr. 1.

The gray went straight to the front and looked strong throughout despite Bad Beat Brian (Jack Milton) hounding her two furlongs in. Caravel hit that mark in :21.86 while Bad Beat Brian increased the pressure. The two rounded the turn with Caravel just in front at the :44.77 half, then battled down the lane. It was around the :56.45 marker for the five furlongs that Bad Beat Brian poked his head in front, but Caravel absolutely would not be denied. She gamely fought back, all heart, and got her head down on the wire in 1:02.58. MGSW & GISP Arrest Me Red (Pioneerof the Nile) finished third.

“I loved it [when she came back after being headed],” said winning rider Tyler Gaffalione, who was also aboard for the Breeders' Cup. “She showed so much heart there. She's a tremendous filly. I'm just lucky enough to be able to guide her around there. [Whether she wants the lead) depends on her break. She's a very alert filly. She jumped well today, so I didn't want to take anything away from her.”

Picked up by her current connections for $500,000 at the 2021 Keeneland November sale as a GIII winner, she was turned over to Brad Cox for 2022 and had a stellar year, winning five of eight, all black-type events. She is actually on her third straight course and distance victory, as she took Keeneland's GIII Franklin S. at the fall meet. Her ownership group originally had her entered in last fall's Keeneland November sale to follow her Breeders' Cup win, but withdrew her and opted to race her this year.

Pedigree Notes:

Caravel has put an exclamation mark on the final crops of Juddmonte's pensioned Mizzen Mast, whose 13 current 2-year-olds are his final foals. The Cozzene stallion has 26 graded winners and 63 black-type winners with Caravel marking his third Breeders' Cup winner following 2012 Juvenile Fillies Turf winner and French champion Flotilla (Fr) and 2012-13 Turf Sprint winner Mizdirection. Caravel is also one of 19 winners out of a daughter of Congrats, although surely none have such a fun name as Caravel's dam, Zeezee Zoomzoom.

The first foal for Zeezee Zoomzoom, Caravel has a younger dual black-type winning half-brother, as well as a 2-year-old half-brother named Enzo (Great Notion) and a 2022 half-sister by Street Boss. The workmanlike family has not been generous with black-type; until Zeezee Zoomzoom's feat of producing Caravel, one has to go back to the Shakertown winner's seventh dam to find a graded producer, making Caravel's as a five-time graded winner all the more impressive.

Saturday, Keeneland
SHAKERTOWN S.-GII, $319,094, Keeneland, 4-8, 3yo/up,
5 1/2fT, 1:02.58, gd.
1–CARAVEL, 121, m, 6, by Mizzen Mast
               1st Dam: Zeezee Zoomzoom, by Congrats
               2nd Dam: Zee Zee, by Exchange Rate
               3rd Dam: Emblem of Hope, by Dynaformer
($330,000 RNA 3yo '20 WANOCT; $500,000 4yo '21 FTKNOV).
O-Qatar Racing, Marc Detampel & Madaket Stables LLC;
B-Elizabeth M. Merryman (PA); T-Brad H. Cox; J-Tyler
Gaffalione. $169,725. Lifetime Record: GISW,  21-13-0-3,
$1,500,877. *1/2 to Witty (Great Notion), MSW, $308,900.
Werk Nick Rating: A++. 
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Bad Beat Brian, 122, g, 6, Jack Milton–Ultimate Class, by
During. 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($22,000 RNA Wlg '17
KEENOV; $16,000 RNA Ylg '18 KEESEP; $115,000 2yo '19
EASMAY). O-Marsico Brothers Racing LLC; B-Pope McLean,
Pope McLean Jr., Marc McLean & Phil Hager (KY); T-Brittany A.
Vanden Berg. $63,875.
3–Arrest Me Red, 122, h, 5, Pioneerof the Nile–Maraschino
Red, by Medaglia d'Oro. O-Lael Stables; B-M. Roy Jackson (KY);
T-Wesley A. Ward. $31,938.
Margins: HD, HF, NO. Odds: 2.15, 40.93, 3.80.
Also Ran: Oceanic, Mark of the Z, Bakers Bay, Stitched, Noble Emotion, Mister Mmmmm, All in Sync, Artemus Citylimits, Johnny Unleashed. Scratched: Nobody Listens. Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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“He’s Here and He’s Ready;” Golden Pal Restarts Final Campaign in Friday’s Troy

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Trainer Wesley Ward turned to football to explain why Golden Pal (Uncle Mo) has turned out to be what he has said is the best horse he has handled during his 32-year career.

“Look at all the special running backs in history,” Ward said. “What makes them so special? They are naturally blessed with talent is what it comes down to. They are extremely fast and a lot of them have the mind for it as well. He's got both.”

Nearly two months after a disappointing appearance as the favorite in the G1 King's Stand S. at Royal Ascot in June, Golden Pal returns to competition Friday in the GIII Troy S. presented by Horse Racing Ireland at Saratoga Race Course. He drew post five in the field of seven going 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf.

Golden Pal is two for two at Saratoga and has won six straight–all in stakes company–in the U.S. since dropping his maiden debut in April, 2020. Overall, he has won six of 10 starts and earned $1.4 million, second in the Ward stable career standings to Judy the Beauty (Ghostzapper).

“He's certainly extremely accomplished here, having won two Breeders' Cups and is shooting for his third,” Ward said. “The only thing he's lacking is over there. He hasn't really come through for me going overseas.”

In his second start as a 2-year-old, Golden Pal was second by a neck to The Lir Jet (Ire) (Prince of Lir {Ire}) in the G2 Norfolk S. at Royal Ascot. Last summer at York, he was seventh in the G1 Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe S. On June 14 in the King's Stand, he got away slowly under Irad Ortiz, Jr., who had his head turned looking at a horse acting up behind the gate, was rushed up, weakened and was eased.

“This year I was just devastated with what happened at the break,” Ward said.

Golden Pal is the first foal out of Lady Shipman (Midshipman), who won 11 stakes during her distinguished career for Randall Lowe. During the height of her career, Lowe said he turned down a high offer of $3.5 million to sell Lady Shipman. He bred Golden Pal and when he failed to reach his reserve price at auction as a yearling, raced him as a 2-year-old. Following Golden Pal's victory in the GII Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, Lowe sold him to the Coolmore partnership of Mr. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith and Westerberg Ltd., which kept him with Ward. The bay completed his 2021 campaign for his new owners with a 1 1/4-length score in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar.

Clearly, Golden Pal has become a Ward favorite.

“He's just such a joy to be around,” Ward said. “Every horse has a different personality, as people do. And this guy has just got a wonderful personality. He's always positive. He'd be a positive person if was a human. He's just a real cool guy to be around.”

Ward has been very careful with Golden Pal, balancing training with a light racing schedule throughout his career. He ran four times as a 2-year-old, another four times last year and will have four, possibly five, starts in this–his final–season on the track. Ward was especially enthusiastic about the way the colt performed in his debut this season, winning the GII Shakertown S. at Keeneland by 4 3/4 lengths Apr. 9.

Running away with the Shakertown in April | Coady

“It was a big race the spring,” Ward said. “He was only coming off a Breeders' Cup to Keeneland. We had to train him with the weather at Keeneland and take him up to Turfway and breeze him. He certainly wouldn't have been 100% going into the race fitness-wise, because we had to contend with the weather, but he just came on with just a powerful race. I was so looking forward to going over to Ascot with him as he just trained well from that point forward.”

Golden Pal has had three breezes at Saratoga, two of them bullets, over the Oklahoma turf training track since July 15.

“We've had ample spacing and he's here and he's ready,” Ward said.

In his two previous starts at Saratoga, Golden Pal was an easy and impressive winner. He broke his maiden by 3 1/2 lengths in the 2020 Skidmore S. when a return trip to Europe was scuttled due to weather. In 2021, he wowed the crowd on opening day with a 3-length victory in hand in the GIII Quick Call S.

From Saratoga, Golden Pal will return to Ward's home base at Keeneland to prepare for the Breeders' Cup. The prep in Kentucky could be an experiment, a surface change.

“We may go to the (GII Stoll Keenon Ogden) Phoenix, which is on the dirt, for stallion value,” Ward said. “We'll see if he can do it. There's no reason why he can't. In another trainer's barn he probably would have been a dirt horse, but he had a lot of physical issues along the way that kept me from running him on the dirt just to keep him sound.”

Golden Pal's only dirt start was in his first career race at Gulfstream Park.

While the Breeders' Cup is the career-ending target, Ward said one more race might be in the offing.

“It may or may not culminate in Australia,” Ward said. “It all depends on how we finish out the year, but Coolmore has expressed an interest in showcasing him for the breeders in Australia in the Southern Hemisphere.”

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Golden Pal Utterly Dominant in Shakertown

Wesley Ward has trained his fair share of fast horses in his career, but where it comes to Golden Pal (Uncle Mo), “this is the fastest of the fast.” That is some compliment, and few would quibble with him after watching the two-time Breeders' Cup winner treat nine fellow turf sprinters to a spectacular front-running tour-de-force in Saturday's GII Shakertown S. at Keeneland.

Sent off the prohibitive 3-5 chalk in his seasonal debut, Golden Pal–who overcame the 13 hole in a field of 14 to win the 2020 GII Juvenile Turf Sprint over this course and distance–blasted away from gate 10 and established a clear lead within a matter of yards. Allowed to make the running while racing in about the two path, he covered his opening quarter in a sensational :20.94 and maintained a daylight advantage on his rivals on the turn over a turf course that had taken better than three inches of rain over the course of the week. Still just galloping along off the fence turning for home, he got the half-mile in an other-worldly :43.58 and was never in any sort of danger. Johnny Unleashed (Colonel John) was second at 70-1, while Gear Jockey (Twirling Candy) rounded out the triple.

“He's just blessed with speed and agility,” Ward continued. “He moves like a cat; he's so quick. For a big, sturdy horse like he is–he's just a once-in-a-lifetime horse.”

Narrowly runner-up to The Lir Jet (Ire) (Prince of Lir {Ire}) as a maiden in the 2020 G2 Norfolk S. at Royal Ascot, Golden Pal bested Cowan (Kantharos) in that year's Juvenile Turf Sprint, but was forced to miss a return trip to the Royal Meeting, making Saratoga's GIII Quick Call S. his first win at the graded level last July. Owner/breeder Randall Lowe sold the colt to the Coolmore partners and Westerberg, but he was a disappointing seventh in the G1 Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe S. in August before bouncing back in Keeneland's GII Woodford S. in October. Golden Pal ran them off the feet in the GI Turf Sprint in his most recent appearance Nov. 6, and Ward indicated that the G1 King's Stand S. at Royal Ascot June 14 over a stiff five furlongs is next on the dance card.

Pedigree Notes:

Golden Pal is the first foal to the races for his dam, a Grade III winner and 10-times stakes winner overall, who also has a runner-up effort in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint to her record. Lady Shipman is a full-sister to Just Talkin, herself multiple stakes-placed in turf sprints, and whose first foal, an American Pharoah colt named Talkin Pharoah, was signed for by Ward for $260,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale. The colt breezed three furlongs at Turfway Park in :35.40 Apr. 7. Lady Shipman is also the dam of the yearling colt Lieutenant General (Omaha Beach) and is due to Uncle Mo this season.

Saturday, Keeneland
SHAKERTOWN S.-GII, $317,657, Keeneland, 4-9, 3yo/up, 5 1/2fT, 1:02.21, gd.
1–GOLDEN PAL, 126, c, 4, by Uncle Mo
                1st Dam: Lady Shipman (GSW-Can, MSW & GISP-USA, $902,387), by Midshipman
                2nd Dam: Sumthingtotalkabt, by Mutakddim
                3rd Dam: Nannetta, by Falstaff
($325,000 RNA Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-Magnier, Mrs. John, Tabor, Michael B., Smith, Derrick and Westerberg; B-Randall E Lowe (FL); T-Wesley A. Ward; J-Irad Ortiz, Jr.. $174,375. Lifetime Record: 9-6-2-0, $1,473,431. Werk Nick Rating: A+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Johnny Unleashed, 122, g, 5, Colonel John–Ready to Unleash, by More Than Ready. 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($10,000 Ylg'18 KEESEP). O-Foster Family Racing, Reynolds, Lonnie, H & H Horses, LLC and Mills, Joseph; B-St. Simon Place, Scott Stephens & Betsy T Wells (KY); T-Eric N. Foster. $65,625.
3–Gear Jockey, 124, h, 5, Twirling Candy–Switching Gears, by Tapit. O/B-Calumet Farm (KY); T-George R. Arnold, II. $32,813.
Margins: 4 3/4, 3/4, NK. Odds: 0.60, 70.20, 9.80.
Also Ran: Diamond Oops, The Lir Jet (Ire), Just Might, Barraza, Natural Power (Ire), Chess Master, Filo Di Arianna (Brz). Scratched: Cowan.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.
 

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Golden Pal Makes Seasonal Bow in Shakertown

 Golden Pal (Uncle Mo) gets his 2022 season underway Saturday in Keeneland's GII Shakertown S. Winner of the GII Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint S. in 2020, the son of talented turf sprinter Lady Shipman (Midshipman) opened 2021 with a win in Saratoga's GIII Quick Call S. last July and failed to fire when seventh at York in the G1 Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe S. Aug. 20. Returning to winning ways in the GII Woodford S. back in Lexington Oct. 9, the bay wired the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint S. when last seen Nov. 6, good for a gaudy 107 Beyer Speed Figure.

Hard-knocking Just Might (Justin Phillip) has won no fewer than eight stakes, but will try to secure his first graded score here. The chestnut won three straight black-type events at the Fair Grounds: the Nov. 25 Thanksgiving Classic S., the Dec. 26 Richard Scherer Memorial S. and the Jan. 22 Duncan F. Kenner S, but was second last out in the Colonel Power S. Feb. 19.

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