Cause Ioya Runs a Long Way to Break her Maiden

When Cause Ioya crossed the finish line first in the eighth race at Arlington International Racecourse on Aug. 18, trainer and owner Chris Block could laugh and celebrate. It was a moment that might have never happened if not for a helpful stranger, her backyard, and the relentless work of the Ocala, Florida horse community. The 3-year-old daughter of Grade III Modesty Handicap winner Ioya Two, who produced graded-stakes winners Amazing Results and Ioya Bigtime, had an interesting turn of events when she was being brought up on the farm in the southern state.

 

“As a yearling, she was being led from the paddock to the barn and spooked from something, and got away from her handler,” Block began. “She has a little bit of attitude. She was able to get loose and off the premises of the farm. She made her way out [the back entrance] and down the road. They thought they could catch her so they got in their cars; she headed out in one direction and once they got to where they saw her running she cut back [the other way] and was gone from there.”

 

By sire Giant’s Causeway, who commanded a stud fee of $85,000 in 2012, the young filly showed off her athleticism as she kicked away into the Florida wilderness. Ocala is home to many horse farms and training centers, but outside the main part of town lies plenty of dense areas of foliage. Ocala itself is less than 40 square miles, but hours turned into days as the little bay filly stayed at large.

 

“We put out a reward for anyone who knew where she was,” recounted Block. “We had a posse that was looking for her and our people in Ocala that were working for us day and night looking for her. Some of my friends that I know down there were keeping an eye out for her and spreading the word around.”

 

“When you’ve got a Giant’s Causeway filly out of a mare like that, I mean any horse would give you a bit of heartache, but that gave us all a lot of concern,” Block continued. “After three or four days we were very concerned that we weren’t going to find her, and as more time went on we didn’t give up, but we couldn’t imagine that we would find her alive, let alone find her.”

 

Eight long days went by without a word of what might have happened to Cause Ioya. Then, hope rang.

 

“One day our farm manager got a call responding to one of the posters we had put up,” Block recalled. “[A woman said] there was another horse in her back pasture with her horse, and she thought it might be [Cause Ioya]. It was something like 10 miles away from the farm. They went over and sure enough it was her. She had a few scrapes on her, but other than that nothing else. The leather on the shank had broken off, but the chain was still hanging from her halter.”

“It was somewhat of a miracle when that lady called and said, ‘hey, I think I’ve got your horse here in my backyard,’” Block said.

Cause Ioya, the little filly with a big attitude, returned to the farm to be carefully looked after and kept safe until her start in training as a racehorse.

 

“We took our time with her, brought her along there and then we started putting some works in her this past spring in Ocala, got her up to a certain point and sent her off,” Block commented. “She’s not very big – kind of like her mom – and mentally, I was real proud of her [breaking her maiden in her third start]. Second time she ran, she lost it in the post parade, and then in the gate she got away from there really bad; she reared at the start.”

 

Cause Ioya came back from that poor effort 40 days later to win going 1 1/16 miles on a good turf course at Arlington International Racecourse. Despite being pinched at the start when breaking from post six in a field of ten, the Illinois-bred filly was patiently handled by Constantino Roman, who let her settle towards the rear of the field early, made up ground on the turn and swung four wide entering the stretch. Cause Ioya flew home to win by three-quarters of a length in a time of 1:48.27.

 

“My preference would be to try and bring her through a couple of conditions, and see where that puts us at,” Block said of his plans moving forward. “I think we will work on that through the fall, maybe get another race here, or maybe Keeneland.”

 

Block is hopeful that from now on, the filly’s athleticism will only be displayed on the racetrack.