WinStar Farm and Stonestreet Stables’ Carpe Diem turned in a stellar performance in Saturday’s $500,000 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland, winning by 6 ¼-lengths to send the undefeated colt to Santa Anita for a shot at the Nov. 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1).
Carpe Diem, a 2-year-old Giant’s Causeway colt, made the decisive move outside the quarter pole, when he was vying for the lead with Conquest Tsunami, to suddenly being up by three lengths in just a few strides. Carpe Diem turned it into a one-horse race in the stretch, coasting under the wire in 1:43.38 for the 1 1/16-miles on a fast track.
Tagged a “TDN Rising Star” following his maiden victory Sept. 1 at Saratoga, Carpe Diem has now picked up $349,800 in his two victories.
“He ran great at Saratoga and then to come here in a Grade 1 like this and put it all together like that around two turns, it’s very exciting,” said Elliott Walden. “This horse is a beautiful horse, he’s got a great pedigree and we hoping to make a stallion. I think we did that today.”
A $1.6-million co-sale topper at the 2014 OBS March Sale, where he was purchased by Stonestreet, Carpe Diem is out of the stake-winning mare Rebridled Dreams and is a half-brother to 2010 Futurity winner J. B.’s Thunder.
