Comebacking Catholic Boy heads Dixie field

BALTIMORE – About an hour before the Preakness Stakes, the versatile multiple Grade 1 winner Catholic Boy will take a turn in the spotlight as the biggest name on the Pimlico undercard when he begins his 2019 season. Eyeing major dirt events this summer, he gets a prep race on turf in the 118th running of the Grade 2, $250,000 Dixie Stakes, shipping down from New York to take on prominent local runners.

Catholic Boy hasn’t started since finishing 13th in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs more than six months ago. Trainer Jonathan Thomas has mentioned dirt races such as the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap on July 6 at Belmont and the Grade 1 Whitney and Grade 1 Woodward at Saratoga as summer goals. The ridgling’s versatility gave Thomas options in finding a comeback spot, and the Dixie was selected for its timing.

“It’s nice to have a horse like him for various reasons, one of the primaries being the fact that he’s adept at two different surfaces and you can kind of pick and choose a little bit about what’s right for his scheduling,” Thomas said. “It’s the beginning of what we’re hoping is a long campaign for the remainder of the year. We’re just looking for him to get a good experience, if that’s winning or not winning. That’s not really my primary goal at this stage as much as just getting him back with a positive race under his belt, and that’s all we’re looking for. The Dixie looks like from a timing perspective for the remainder of the year a good launch pad for him.”

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Catholic Boy has won four of his five starts on turf, with his only loss a fourth-place finish in the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. Last year, he won the Grade 1 Belmont Derby at 1 1/4 miles on turf. Already a graded stakes winner on dirt, he shifted back to the main track to win the Grade 1 Travers Stakes, also at 1 1/4 miles before the BC Classic.

Catholic Boy had been working steadily on the dirt in preparation for his 2019 season. Last Saturday, Thomas put him on Belmont’s inner turf to breeze five furlongs in 1:02.19 in company with stablemate Osare, a stakes-winning half-sister to champion Arrogate. She is entered in the Searching Stakes on Saturday at Pimlico. Javier Castellano was aboard for the work and retains the mount Saturday after piloting Catholic Boy in his final four races last year, with victories in the Grade 3 Pennine Ridge Stakes, Belmont Derby, and Travers. The duo drew the outside post in the field of 12, which includes a pair of Maryland-bred stalwarts in Just Howard and Phlash Phelps.

Just Howard was the 2017 Maryland-bred horse of the year for a campaign with three stakes wins, including the Grade 3 Commonwealth Derby. Last year, he finished third in an off-the-turf renewal of the Dixie, and was off the board in three other stakes. He returned from a six-month layoff to finish a troubled fourth in the Henry S. Clark Stakes on April 20 at Laurel.

“I feel like he’s an unlucky horse,” trainer Graham Motion said. “We kind of got caught out with the weather last year. We just never seemed to get lucky. Then, his first race back this year he got in trouble, which probably compromised him. He got taken up pretty good at the sixteenth pole, so I think if he improves a little bit he can be competitive in here.”

Fifth in the Henry Clark, also in his season debut, was Phlash Phelps, winner of the 2015 and 2016 Maryland Million Turf and second in that race last year.

Other graded stakes winners in the Dixie field are Flameaway, Have At It, Inspector Lynley, Real Story, and Something Awesome. Flameaway is cross-entered in Friday’s Grade 3 Pimlico Special.

Real Story is winless since taking the Grade 3 American Derby last summer at Arlington Park. He was second, beaten a neck, in the Henry Clark. Another Dixie entrant, multiple stakes winner O Dionysus, was a nose behind in third.

Five-time stakes winner Inspector Lynley is coming off a victory in the Danger’s Hour Stakes on April 7 at Aqueduct. His Beyer Speed Figure of 97 is the top last-out number in the field.