us racing
New York Giant’s Despite a final crop of just three, Giant’s Causeway has extended his legacy again, writes Melissa Bauer-Herzog
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HEN CHAMPION SIRE Giant’s Causeway died in the midst of the 2018 breeding season, he had covered just a handful of mares. It meant he had three live foals born to his name the following year. But the Iron Horse has stamped these last representatives and they are living up to the legacy created by their sire. His son, the new Grade 1 winner Classic Causeway, first caught the eye when making an impressive 6l debut victory at Saratoga last September. The colt earned his first Grade 1 placing on his next start in the Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity (G1) then started his three-year-old season with a pair of graded stakes wins on
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the Dirt to qualify for a spot in the Kentucky Derby (G1). An 11th place finish in that first Triple Crown race saw him switch trainers from Brian Lynch to Kenny McPeek – within two starts the colt became a dual surface graded stakes winner. A combination of two weeks’ rest and his first start on Turf against a tough Belmont Derby (G1) field saw Classic Causeway sent off at odds of 26-1. But the front-running speed that saw him win multiple graded stakes on the Dirt, proved to be his best weapon on the Turf allowing him to take an easy lead. Nations Pride and Stone Age attempted to give European invaders their second consecutive win in the race, but could only fight for the minor placings with Nations
Pride finishing three-quarters of a length behind the winner with a head separating the Charlie Appleby-trained runner from Stone Age. A homebred for Kentucky West Racing and Clarke Cooper, the victory meant that Classic Causeway became the 36th Grade 1 winner for his sire. Classic Causeway is the best of Giant’s Causeway’s final three runners, but all three have shown stakes talent. Giant Game finished third in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) and the Shadwell homebred Monaadah collected a fourth place in Newmarket’s Listed Sir Henry Cecil Stakes only days before Classic Causeway’s Grade 1 win. McPeek hinted that it is possible Classic Causeway could make a trip abroad at some
