Warrior’s Club Wins Spendthrift Stallion

In pace-setting fashion, Warrior's Club won the inaugural $300,000 Spendthrift Stallion Stakes Oct. 30 over seven furlongs on a fast track at Churchill Downs. 

Under jockey Miguel Mena, the 2-year-old son of Warrior's Reward broke well in his stakes debut and quickly found his way to the front. Cool Arrow, one of nine sons and daughters of Into Mischief   entered in the field, moved up alongside of him and the two were head to head throughout the turn. But on the turn for home Warrior's Club drove down the stretch, pulling away to win by 2 3/4 lengths. The final time was 1:23.31.

Cool Arrow finished second, 5 3/4 lengths ahead of Lawton (Archarcharch  ) in third, All Right (Dominus  ) was fourth. The 2-1 favorite South Sea (Into Mischief) did not place. 

"Turning for home, I asked him to run and he really just put the other horses away," Mena said. "The horse (Cool Arrow) came on the outside but this horse had plenty of run and fought and kept on going."

Owned by the Churchill Downs Racing Club and trained by D. Wayne Lukas, the win was the colt's first in six starts. In his previous race, Warrior's Club finished runner up in a $60,000 maiden special weight race behind first time starter Speedmeister at Keeneland Oct. 9.

"I've been so blessed with good horses and this little horse is just an overachiever," Lukas said. "He's getting better all the time. He's just getting better and better. I don't know where we'll go from here but we picked up a check for $90,000 and that's pretty good.

"The horses that had been beating him are really quality horses," he continued. "We didn't give a lot for this horse but that doesn't mean a thing. When they can run, they can run but the horses that had beaten him cost a lot and had great pedigrees so he's a blue-collar horse. He fits the scenario of the club perfectly. He's kind of an over-achiever and he's doing his job and that's all you can say."

The Spendthrift Stallion Stakes is a new race created this year in partnership with Churchill Downs and Spendthrift Farm, exclusively for 2-year-olds sired by any active or non-active Spendthrift stallion, including all Spendthrift-owned stallions standing regionally in North America. It is designed to award owners and breeders with $150,000 going to the owners of the placed horses, the other $150,000 is divided among the breeders of placed horses, with the winning breeder, John O'Meara, earning $60,000. 

Warrior's Club joins a few other notable juvenile winners as of late. Gormley took the Oct. 1 FrontRunner Stakes (gr. I) by three lengths, Practical Joke held on for a victory in the Champagne Stakes (gr. I) Oct. 8, Classic Empire won the Claiborne Breeders' Futurity (gr. I) the same day, the undefeated Three Rules swept Gulfstream Park's Florida Sire stakes series Oct. 10, and Theory won the Futurity Stakes (gr. III) by 3 1/2 lengths Oct. 15.

Gormley, Practical Joke, Classic Empire, and Three Rules will make their next start in the Sentient Jet  Breeders' Cup Juvenile Nov. 5.