Catholic Boy shows he's 'grown up' in Breeders' Cup work

Grade 1 Travers winner Catholic Boy put in his final work for the 2018 Breeders' Cup Classic Sunday morning at Churchill Downs. The 3-year-old Jonathan Thomas trainee will be making his first start since the Mid-Summer Derby in next weekend's feature under the twin spires.

With jockey Javier Castellano aboard, Catholic Boy ticked off five furlongs in 1:01 flat, the second fastest of 33 works at the distance. The track was rated fast following a rainy Saturday morning.

“It was good to see, especially this close, being your final work,” Thomas said. “It always takes a lot of anxiety out of our lives when these horses have their final works and they’re done in this manner. Most importantly it’s a continuation of what we’ve seen from him throughout the year.”

Catholic Boy worked consistent panels of :12 and change, which Thomas said allows him to get into his high cruising speed. The More Than Ready ridgling has also displayed that speed since returning to the races this summer, winning the Pennine Ridge (G3) and Belmont Derby (G1) on turf ahead of the Travers.

“Early on, especially with our young horses, we don’t really force them to do anything in a race scenario. We let them break and let them find themselves,” Thomas added. “And early on he was a horse that was content to sit off the pace and engage. For a little while I thought he was a horse that had a turn of foot and kind of had a more turf approach to things.

“Subsequently he’s really grown up and gotten stronger and he’s gotten more engaged in his works and he’s been a little bit sharper from the gate and sharper into the bridle from the pull and physically he’s put on weight. So he kind of gave us confidence that he was approaching that time in his life where we could be a little more aggressive with him.”

Thomas has been hands-on with Catholic Boy since the time he was purchased as a weanling, making the banner year extra special for the trainer and his team. Owned by Robert LaPenta, Madaket Stables, Siena Farm and Twin Creeks Racing Stables, Catholic Boy holds a 9:6-1-0 record and has earnings over $1.8 million.

Prior to the Travers, Thomas said he felt Catholic Boy’s best distance was at 1 ¼ miles and his works showed he was equally talented on dirt as he was turf. With a four-length win over Mendelssohn, Catholic Boy backed up his trainer’s words.

“The month leading up to the Travers – I hate admitting this – but it was probably one of the easiest months I’ve ever had with a horse leading up to anything,” Thomas said. “He breezed super. He really didn’t have a hair out of place the entire time. So we anticipated him showcasing himself at his best. To go and do what he did against that caliber of horse, I didn’t know he would do that.”

Castellano has been aboard Catholic Boy since the Pennine Ridge, and the horse and rider have paired to win three straight graded stakes. The jockey said he liked how the work went today and said Catholic Boy is a “very straightforward horse.”

“Everything he’s run, he’s won. He’s showed he’s a good horse — turf, dirt — and he’s a very tactical horse,” Castellano added.

“His mind and heart — I think those two things make him special.”

The Classic, also run at 1 ¼ miles, will be Catholic Boy’s second Breeders’ Cup trip. Thomas started him on the grass as a 2-year-old as there were more route options available and he ran a respectable fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, won by Mendelssohn. The two will face off again on Saturday in the Classic.

Catholic Boy will also face 3-year-old McKinzie,who won the Pennsylvania Derby (G1), from the Bob Baffert stable and his stablemate West Coast, expected favorite Accelerate trained by John Sadler, and a handful of other horses with a strong chance to win.

“It’s definitely wide-open. There are a lot of very accomplished horses. There’s five or six that if they won, it wouldn’t surprise anybody,” Thomas said. “There’s certainly not a horse that’s going to be like 7-5 at post time where we’re all conceding defeat. So I think that opens up things.

“It opens up things tactically. Obviously we’ll learn a lot at draw time in regards to tactics and that kind of thing. But look, when you’re lining up against Baffert, Sadler and all these guys that are so good at what they do, you realize it’s the best of what is available at the end of a long year.”