2022 Eclipse Awards: Cave Rock

Blessed with blazing speed and able to carry it around two turns, Cave Rock won two Grade 1 stakes and finished second in the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to earn a spot as a finalist for the Eclipse Award in the 2-year-old male division.

A son of Arrogate out of the Bellamy Road mare Georgie’s Angel, Cave Rock was bred by Anne and Ronnie Sheffer Racing LLC, is owned by Michael Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman, and trained by Bob Baffert. He was purchased for $550,000 as a yearling at the 2021 Keeneland September sale. Cave Rock is named for a landmark in the South Lake Tahoe area.

Cave Rock debuted Aug. 13 at Del Mar, setting fast early fractions and drawing clear from eight rivals to win by six lengths, earning a 101 Beyer Speed Figure.

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Sent off the 2-5 favorite in the Grade 1 Runhappy Del Mar Futurity, Cave Rock got involved in an early pace duel with stablemate Havnameltdown, quickly left him, and drew off to a 5 1/4-length victory. It was Baffert’s 16th victory in the Del Mar Futurity.

Following those two performances, Cave Rock’s next assignment was 1 1/16 miles and two turns in the Grade 1 American Pharoah. He proved the added distance wasn’t an issue as he galloped to a 5 1/4-length victory over stablemate National Treasure, this time getting a 104 Beyer.

Baffert trained Arrogate, the 2016 Travers winner and 2017 Dubai World Cup winner, who died in 2020 from an unspecified illness. Arrogate, at the very least, passed on his tremendous early speed to this progeny.

“The really good ones come around quickly, and he’s always been different,” Baffert said of Cave Rock following the American Pharoah. “He’s built different than Arrogate. He’s powerful, stronger, and he’s quick. He runs with his head sort of low like Arrogate. He just keeps improving.”

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Many handicappers anointed Cave Rock a lock to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland. However, Cave Rock was hounded early by 70-1 shot Hurricane J through an opening quarter of 22.90 seconds. Though he was able to shake off Hurricane J shortly thereafter, he couldn’t fend off Forte in the stretch, succumbing to that one by 1 1/2 lengths while finishing 2 1/4 lengths clear of National Treasure, also trained by Baffert.

“I saw that first quarter, I was worried about that,” Baffert said. “You can’t do that here. He’s such a good horse. Forte, he’s a good horse too. We got beat by a good horse.”

As of early January, Cave Rock was in light training at Santa Anita and Baffert hadn’t yet picked out a spot for his 3-year-old debut.

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