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Pavel gets his Grade 1 in the bag And provides sire Creative Cause with a first G1 progeny success, writes Melissa Bauer-Herzog
T
he six weeks following the Triple Crown is traditionally a quiet spell in US racing, but that hasn’t been the case the past few years with a Grade 1 race nearly every weekend over the past
month. Fittingly, the night Justify paraded at Churchill Downs a week after the Belmont, the Stephen Foster (G1) – a Breeders’ Cup Classic Win and You’re In race – was won by Pavel. Trained by Doug O’Neill, Pavel is campaigned and ridden by the same
connections as 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist and 2012 Triple Crown hopeful, I’ll Have Another. Pavel has often been pointed at Grade 1 targets since starting his career last July with six of his nine graded stakes attempts coming at the level. While his closest success until this point had been a third in the Jockey Club Gold Cup last year, he’d also finished fourth in the Dubai World Cup (G1) and Gold Cup at Santa Anita (G1) in 2018. The 3l Stephen Foster victory earned Pavel the distinction of becoming the first Grade 1 winner for his young sire Creative Cause (Giant’s Causeway), who currently leads the third-crop sires’ list by number of stakes winners and earnings. That result topped a big night for the stallion – a Grade 1-winning juvenile, runnerup in the Santa Anita Derby (G1) and third in the Preakness (G1) – who also had a threeyear-old daughter claim a runner-up spot at Listed level earlier in the day. At the end of the month, the US Turf sprint star Long On Value finally added a Grade 1 victory to his resume in the Highlander Stakes. Bought by trainer Brad Cox at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale last year for $100,000, the seven-year-old has not only paid back the investment in earnings, but made himself into a potential stallion after previous close
It’s safe to assume that the Grade 1 victory earned Funtastic a spot on a stallion roster somewhere in coming years
A good week for Camelot: his daughter Athena (pic) won the Belmont Oaks (G1), Hunting Horn finished third in the Belmont Derby (G1), and a week earlier his son Latrobe won the Irish Derby (G1)
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attempts at Grade 1 success. Finishing a painfully close second in Dubai last year and third when stepping up to a mile in the Woodbine Mile last September, Long On Value has gone two-for-two in his starts this year after the trainer switch and is the best horse sired by Value Plus (Unbridled’s Song), who stands in British Columbia,
Canada after stints in Kentucky and then Florida. The Turf invasion continued the following week when Money Multiplier (Lookin At Lucky) finished second in his sixth Grade 1 to Funtastic (More Than Ready) in the United Nations Stakes (G1). It’s safe to assume that the Grade 1 victory earned Funtastic a spot on a stallion roster somewhere in coming years – quite probably his owner’s Three Chimneys Farm, Kentucky – as he now has the form in the book alongside his stellar pedigree. By the legendary More Than Ready, Funtastic is a half-brother to Saint Liam, a former Horse of the Year, and to Quiet Giant, the dam of Three Chimneys’ champion Gun Runner. He’s had an interesting start of things running mostly in allowances after breaking his maiden in his second start, and making his graded stakes debut a year later. With More Than Ready entering the
