Caravel on Track for Troy

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – On the Whitney Day card with three Grade I races, the GIII Troy S. is pretty easy to overlook.

Last year, though, two-time Breeders' Cup race winner Golden Pal (Uncle Mo) drew attention to the 5 1/2-furlong turf test, which he won by a head. On Aug. 5, Caravel (Mizzen Mast) will be the headliner in the 20th running of the Troy and, if the 2022 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint upsetter prevails, will be its first female winner.

Caravel prepped for the race Saturday on the Oklahoma turf training track with a half-mile in :48.88 under Kelvin Perez. It was the sixth-fastest of the 20 at the distance.

Trainer Brad Cox gave the breeze a solid review.

“Very good. She's always a great workhorse,” he said. “Great work this morning, so very pleased with what we saw out there.”

The gray 6-year-old Pennsylvania-bred mare brings a five-race unbeaten streak into the Troy. Starting with her victory at 42-1 in the Breeders' Cup at Keeneland, three of those wins have come against males.

While she was a very accomplished runner for breeder-owner-trainer Elizabeth Merryman winning seven of nine starts–topped by the GIII Caress S. in 2021 at Saratoga–and finishing third in the other two, she has really blossomed since last summer. Merryman sold a 75% stake to Bobby Flay in 2021 and they sold her for $500,000 to Qatar Racing and Marc Detampel at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Fall Mixed Sale. Madaket Stables subsequently became a partner. The 5-year-old was turned over to Cox, who tried her once against males without success in the GII Twin Spires Turf Sprint on the Kentucky Derby program.

Cox said he had no idea that Caravel was capable of what she has accomplished.

“She got really good starting last fall,” he said. “She's always been good, but she became dominant maybe.”

After Caravel won the GIII Franklin S. at Keeneland on Oct. 16, Cox and the owners decided to try her in the Breeders' Cup over the same course. She handled pace pressure throughout, won by a half-length and paid $87.78. This year she is three-for-three and has beaten males in the GII Shakertown S. at Keeneland and the GI Jaipur S. at Belmont Park.

“She stepped up. She's been able to defeat them three times now within the last nine months,” Cox said. “She's really good. She's happy. She likes Saratoga. I'm looking forward to getting a run into her here the first part of August.”

Cox said entering Caravel in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint was a gamble.

“We were taking a shot,” he said. “She had just come off a win at Keeneland in a Grade III. It was a big run. We were asking her to run back in three weeks. We were taking a shot. She was 40-something to 1 or whatever she was. When you run horses in races and when you're that price there's really no pressure.  There was no pressure and obviously the favorite that day [Golden Pal] missed the break. I don't know how things would have played out, but she's gone on to capture another Grade I since that against the boys and is undefeated since. She's got a nice win streak going and she gives us a lot of confidence throughout the entire year, really.”