Dixie Stakes a Starting Spot for Versatile Catholic Boy
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Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt
Jonathan Thomas with Catholic Boy at Saratoga Race Course
The wide swath of emerald lawn at Pimlico Race Course on Preakness Stakes Day is not a likely place to find the horse who could electrify the dirt division later this year.
Then again, Catholic Boy's career has hardly been run by the book.
Trainer Jonathan Thomas has the 4-year-old son of More Than Ready set to shake off the cobwebs May 18 in the $250,000 Dixie Stakes (G2T), a 1 1/16-mile turf test for 3-year-olds and up that could lead to greater glory in the handicap division this summer. After a six-month layoff, the dual grade 1 winner on turf and dirt has drawn the outside in a field of 11 for his 2019 debut under Javier Castellano, which marks his first race on grass since a game win in the July 7 Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes (G1T) at Belmont Park.
Shifted back to the main track, over which he won the Remsen Stakes (G2) as a 2-year-old, Catholic Boy next galloped to an impressive win in the Runhappy Travers Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course, then encountered traffic trouble at the start of the Nov. 3 Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) and was eased in the race at Churchill Downs. The Breeders' Cup was his most recent start, after which he wintered with Thomas at Bridlewood Farm in Ocala, Fla.
"It's nice to get him back to the races," Thomas said. "He had a nice, well-deserved break over the winter. He's done really well physically, put on weight and grown. Right after the Breeders' Cup, he got a full workup at Ocala Equine, and thankfully he was perfect from a physical standpoint. He didn't require anything other than 80 days of turnout to let him be a horse. It's a credit to a lot of people and certainly the ownership group, allowing the horse coming off a good year to take some time off. It speaks volumes to their horsemanship."
Robert LaPenta, Madaket Stables, Siena Farm, and Twin Creeks Racing Stables campaign Catholic Boy, who races in silks that bear the colors of LaPenta's alma mater, Iona College. The ridgling made his first two starts on turf and won, breaking his maiden and taking the With Anticipation Stakes (G3T) before he ran fourth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T) and moved to dirt to take the Remsen. As a 3-year-old, he was second in the Sam F. Davis Stakes (G3) and fourth in the Xpressbet Florida Derby (G1) before he was sent back to the grass again to take the Pennine Ridge Stakes (G3T) as a prep for the Belmont Derby.
Thomas, whose five graded stakes wins have all come courtesy of Catholic Boy, said another return to the main track could loom for the bay runner, with the July 6 Suburban Stakes (G2) at Belmont serving as a steppingstone to the Aug. 3 Whitney Stakes (G1) at Saratoga.
"The Dixie allows you six weeks until the Suburban, and if you look at his past performances, he's done well with six-week intervals between races," Thomas said. "(His versatility is) definitely a luxury, because it opens up a lot of different opportunities and ways to get to the main target. It speaks a lot to him as an individual, that he's athletic enough to be adept on both surfaces, which is unique. There's also the mental component. For the most part, he's always been very genuine in his racing. He always tries. It's just him. He's a racehorse and he wants to win."
Catholic Boy holds a special spot in the heart of his connections, especially Thomas, who found him as a short yearling and persuaded LaPenta to make the purchase after the ridgling RNA'd for $170,000 at the 2016 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale.
"He's really put us out there as being a stable that, with the right horse, can accomplish things in nice races," Thomas said. "He means a lot from that perspective. As a horseman, I was fortunate enough to buy him as a (yearling) and broke him at Bridlewood, so it's like having your kid grow up. He's been with us for a long time, and even when he had a break over the winter, he was a couple hundred yards from my house. You try not to get too attached to them, but it's hard not to. As long as he goes out there and gets a good trip and comes back safe, that's all I can hope for."
"He has a huge following," said LaPenta. "This is just a comeback race for him, but hopefully he runs well. He's training really well. I think if he makes some noise in the late summer, people are going to rally around him. He's been such an overachiever. He exemplifies everything that's good in racing—a blue-collar horse that's gone beyond expectations.
"I'm very excited whenever he runs—it's the adrenaline, I think. After every one of his races, it's hard for me to contain myself. They always have me crying on TV, so hopefully they have me crying on Saturday."
Among the rivals Catholic Boy will face in his 2019 debut are graded stakes winners Have At It, Inspector Lynley, Just Howard, Real Story, and Something Awesome, along with local multiple stakes winners O Dionysus and Phlash Phelps. Admission Office, Paret, and Twenty Four Seven complete the field. John Oxley's Flameaway, cross-entered in the Dixie and the May 17 $300,000 Pimlico Special Stakes (G3) at 1 1/4 miles on dirt, bypassed the Dixie and headed to the Pimlico Special, where he finished last of 13 after racing forwardly but faltering past the three-sixteenths.
"It's the beginning of what we're hoping is a long campaign for the remainder of the year," Thomas said. "We're just looking for him to get a good experience, if that's winning or not winning. That's not really my primary goal at this stage as much as just getting him back with a positive race under his belt, and that's all we're looking for. The Dixie looks like, from a timing perspective for the remainder of the year, a good launching pad for him."