Dilger Points Our Caravan to Holy Bull
Our Caravan, a $73.80 winner in his Dec. 14 unveiling at Gulfstream Park, will make his next start in the $400,000 Holy Bull (G2).
Trainer Michael Dilger is pointing the bay Daaher colt to the 1 1/16-mile Holy Bull for 3-year-olds, to be run on Jan. 25.
“We got him back here after the race, checked him out and made sure he was OK,” Dilger said. “We had a look at the condition book and saw what our options were and decided for $400,000, he’s a course and distance winner so let’s give it a shot and see what happens.”
Owned by Anstu Stable, Our Caravan settled in mid-pack in his debut before rocketing down the stretch and pulling clear to a three-length win at odds of 35-1, running 8 ½ furlongs in 1:44.73.
“He’s a nice horse and we’ve always liked him,” Dilger said. “We always knew he was going to be a two-turn horse. There was a lot of speed in the race that day and it sort of stopped in front of him, but we were expecting him to run well, for sure.”
Our Caravan had his second work back since the race on Jan. 12, going five furlongs in 1:01.25 at Palm Meadows. He will be giving up some seasoning in the Holy Bull, which is expected to draw Grade 2 winner Cairo Prince, Grade 3 Dania Beach winner Mr. Speaker and General a Rod and Wildcat Red, who ran 1-2 in the Gulfstream Park Derby on Jan. 1.
“Obviously he lacks experience, but by the same token we’ve had him in training for quite a while,” Dilger said. “He’s not a green horse; he just lacks that racetrack experience. He’s running against some pretty nice horses that have already proven themselves to be stakes caliber, so those are the two main concerns.”
Dilger hasn’t ruled out the $100,000 Kitten’s Joy on the Gulfstream turf Jan. 19 for Nowhere to Run, who went gate to wire to break his maiden at odds of 33-1 on Dec. 7.
Meanwhile, Grade 2 winner Wired Bryan continues to work toward his 3-year-old debut. Also owned by Anstu, the Stormy Atlantic colt most recently won the Bertram Bongard at Belmont Park on Oct. 19.
“He’s training at the moment,” Dilger said. “He should hit the work tab here shortly. We gave him some time off after his last race and are just getting him back into the swing of things. We’ll take it as we find it; no firm plans yet.”