Caracaro showed the potential for top-level ability on the racetrack, but never got the chance to deliver a breakthrough victory. Now, his first foals are showing potential – and if fate is kind to them, perhaps they’ll deliver their sire to the top ranks of this freshman class. The first runner and winner for the Crestwood Farm stallion Caracaro – Grade 1-placed in his four starts before being retired – is West Memorial, winner of the Kentucky Juvenile against colts last month at Churchill Downs. Through May 31, about two months into this 2-year-old racing season, 16 North American freshman sires have been represented by winners – but Caracaro is the only one with a stakes winner. He’ll get a chance to further distinguish himself as West Memorial goes in the $150,000 Astoria Stakes on Thursday at Saratoga. Racing against her own sex this time, the precocious filly will go 5 1/2 furlongs – a half-furlong longer than the Kentucky Juvenile. That and more shouldn’t be a problem, says Pope McLean, Jr., director and business manager for his family’s Crestwood. “Obviously he is throwing precocity, but we think he can get a two-turn classic horse as well,” McLean said of Caracaro. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. Caracaro, bred in Kentucky by SF Bloodstock, is by classic sire Uncle Mo, who has also emerged as a sire of sires, with Nyquist, Laoban, Outwork, and more to his credit. Caracaro is out of the War Front mare Peace Time, whose dam is Grade 2 winner and Kentucky Oaks runner-up Santa Catarina. Since Caracaro’s birth, Peace Time has updated the pedigree by producing stakes winner Xtremetime and two other stakes-placed runners in Australia. The strong pedigree on both sides eventually helped attract Crestwood to the stallion prospect. “We loved his physical,” McLean said. “We loved Uncle Mo and believed that he was well on his way to becoming a sire of sires.” First, though, Caracaro raced for Global Thoroughbred and Top Racing, and trainer Gustavo Delgado. The April foal was second in his debut in December 2019 going seven furlongs at Gulfstream Park; the next time out, he went a mile in a January 2020 maiden, and rolled by six lengths. A minor injury temporarily benched Caracaro, and by the time he returned to the work tab in late May, the racing calendar had been turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic. The colt returned to the races in the Grade 3 Peter Pan Stakes at 1 1/8 miles, contested July 16 at Saratoga. Caracaro led in the stretch before he was beaten a neck by Country Grammer. The latter went on to win or place in multiple Grade/Group 1 events, with scores in the 2021 Hollywood Gold Cup and 2022 Dubai World Cup; finishing third in the Peter Pan was 2021 World Cup winner Mystic Guide. Caracaro went on to finish second by 5 1/2 lengths to multiple Grade 1 winner Tiz the Law – winner of the pandemic-adjusted 2020 Belmont Stakes – in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes at 1 1/4 miles Aug. 8 at Saratoga. Future Grade 1 winner Max Player was third, with Country Grammer fifth. Both the Peter Pan and Travers were points races toward the pandemic-delayed 2020 Kentucky Derby, and Caracaro earned a spot in the projected field. However, in his final breeze for the race, in late August at Saratoga, he suffered a soft tissue injury. His retirement was announced in November. Caracaro entered stud at Crestwood for an advertised fee of $6,500, and has bred relatively consistent books of mares at that number. According to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred, he covered 76 mares in 2021, 72 in 2022, and 67 in 2023, not showing a large drop-off in numbers that may be typical after a stallion’s first year. Another early hint that people liked what they saw came in the fall of 2022, when a filly from Caracaro’s first crop sold for $47,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale. With that boutique single-session auction offering a smaller selection of weanlings than other mixed sales, youngsters selected to the catalog must have an outstanding pedigree, physical, or both. “We have always liked his get,” McLean said of the physical attributes of Caracaro’s foals. “He is throwing correct foals with strong, athletic bodies, and they have good minds, as well. They have been well received at the sales.” :: Bet with the Best! Get FREE All-Access PPs and Weekly Cashback when you wager on DRF Bets. Last year, 31 yearlings from Caracaro’s first crop sold at public auction for an average of $37,351 – a modest price, but more than 5.7 times their sire’s introductory fee, indicating he was providing good value to breeders at the level. This year, the average sale price for Caracaro’s 2-year-olds has spiked to $148,767 for 15 sold. That group is led by a $775,000 filly purchased by Three Amigos, the buying name of Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman, prominent clients of trainer Bob Baffert, at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s spring sale of 2-year-olds in training. West Memorial, a $45,000 Keeneland September yearling, was second by a head in her April 7 debut at Keeneland, after dueling with The Queens M G in a 4 1/2-furlong race. In the Kentucky Juvenile, the filly carried the colors of Swinbank Stables to a 1 3/4-length victory, going away. “We knew they were high on her, but it was very exciting to see her back it up,” McLean said. ◗ In addition to Caracaro, four other freshman sires are represented in the entries for the Astoria and its brother race, the $150,000 Tremont Stakes, on Thursday at Saratoga. In the Astoria, Caracaro’s West Memorial gets a rematch with The Queens M G, by Thousand Words (Spendthrift Farm). The field also includes Woodbine maiden winner French Horn, by Complexity (Airdrie Stud). Thousand Words and Complexity are tied in the early freshman standings with three individual winners each through May 31. Complexity, a Grade 1-winning juvenile himself, leads by earnings. The Tremont field includes first-time starter Dominican Thunder, by Improbable (WinStar Farm); and Three Echoes, a Churchill debut winner for Echo Town (Coolmore’s Ashford Stud). This is the first of what will be three full crops for Eclipse Award champion Improbable, who died in March, about a month into this breeding season, which will leave him with a small fourth crop. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.