Giant’s Causeway, a European horse of the year who became a champion at stud in the US, has a 100% record with his final crop, among them a lading fancy for this weekend’s Florida Derby. Steve Dennis reports
USA: Blood will out. Giant’s Causeway has been dead these last four years, but he persists in more than the memory.
It’s an occupational hazard for stallions; like the light from stars, their last efflorescence reaches us long after their death. So it goes for Giant’s Causeway, the astonishingly tough son of Storm Cat who in his storied career on the track went all the way up to 11 – on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness.
Then he mirrored his racecourse brilliance at stud, siring champions in Europe and the US, until his life came neatly full circle and he died at the place of his birth, Ashford Stud in Kentucky, at the age of 21.
He left us all those memories, and also something else. From his abbreviated final season at stud – nine mares covered – there were just three named foals, all colts, and incredibly all three are winners, two are G1-placed, and one is a leading contender for the Kentucky Derby.
Statistically speaking, Giant’s Causeway’s final crop is off the scale, the 100% outlier of outliers. They say three is the magic number; well, this is pure wizardry.
The first to be foaled was Monaadah, out of the Haafhd mare Almusafa. Owned by the Shadwell empire and trained by Saeed bin Suroor, he won a conditions race at Meydan over seven furlongs on his debut at the beginning of March. Four days later, from the More Than Ready mare Game For More, along came Giant Game, third in last year’s G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile for trainer Dale Romans.
On the very same day, at Ashford, Classic Causeway was foaled from Private World, a daughter of Thunder Gulch. Now in training with Brian Lynch, Classic Causeway ran third in the G1 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland as a juvenile and this year has won the G2 Tampa Bay Derby and the G3 Sam F Davis Stakes, with Saturday’s G1 Florida Derby next and the Kentucky Derby firmly in his sights.
“He seems to have the spirit of his old man in him, as well as some of the talent,” says Lynch, 57. “He was apparently a little bit of a handful as a young horse, but after he came into training with me he became a lot more focused, and then he started showing a lot of natural talent. Right from the start he was a cut above my other two-year-olds.
“He’s a very honest horse. In the mornings he does as much as he has to – he’ll work fast when it’s required of him, if it isn’t he’ll be more relaxed – and he’s just a lovely, sound horse to train, no bad habits, just a class act.”
To watch Classic Causeway – the very spit and image of his old man, a bright chestnut coat and a lavish white blaze, with one white sock fewer – run is to be transported back to the summer of 2000, when Giant’s Causeway earned the admiring nickname ‘The Iron Horse’ for his exploits in Britain, Ireland and the US.
One of the first champions trained by Aidan O’Brien and still one of the best, Giant’s Causeway won the G1 Prix de la Salamandre at two and then, after finishing runner-up in the 2,000 Guineas and Irish 2,000 Guineas, embarked on a run of five consecutive victories at the top level within the space of two and a half months, all characterised by a seemingly limitless desire to win.
His streak started in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, continued in the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown, the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood and the Juddmonte International at York, and concluded in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown. None of these successes was gained by more than three-quarters of a length; he liked a fight, did Giant’s Causeway, a heavyweight puncher with a middleweight’s speed.
His heir Classic Causeway hasn’t had to fight too hard just yet, but Lynch – an expat Australian who has never had a runner in the Kentucky Derby – is confident that when push comes to shove he’ll answer the bell.
“He probably wasn’t experienced enough for a Grade 1 on just his second start and he got a bit tired, but he boxed on gamely from the quarter-pole and didn’t quit,” he says.
“He has been winning his races on the lead, but I don’t think he has to be out there. He can switch off and relax, because he’s got natural speed and he can carry it, he always finishes off his races well, just like his sire.
“Wasn’t Giant’s Causeway just the absolute iron horse? I remember him in the Breeders’ Cup Classic when he and Tiznow fought it out all the way to the line. That was a real race.”
It was the final battle of Giant’s Causeway’s career and one of the few he didn’t win, beaten a neck by Tiznow in the Classic after the sort of stretch duel that grandchildren are told about, but he was soon to become just as fine a champion at stud as he was on the racecourse, proving equally adept at siring winners on dirt as well as turf.
From his first crop came dual French Classic winner Shamardal and 2,000 Guineas
winner Footstepsinthesand, from the second came G1 winners First Samurai and Heatseeker, and after that the ball just kept rolling, with Breeders’ Cup winners Take Charge Brandi and Bricks And Mortar among his best progeny.
Giant’s Causeway was North America’s leading sire three times (2009, 2010 and 2012), has produced 195 black-type winners with the scope still to reach 200 before the spigot finally runs dry, and held the all-time progeny earnings record in North America until Tapit surpassed it last summer.
His son Protonico sired last year’s ill-starred Kentucky Derby ‘winner’ Medina Spirit, and his influence will sustain as a sire of broodmares, with his grandson Gun Runner becoming last year’s US champion freshman sire.
Now, from among his last three musketeers, there might yet be one final flourish to set the seal on a legacy that will, like that ancient starlight, endure long into the future.
“Classic Causeway has done everything very easily so far, everything in his life has been angled towards getting him ready for his next two races, the Florida Derby on Saturday and the Kentucky Derby in May,” adds Lynch.
“Will he stay ten furlongs? You never know until you try, but his pedigree says he’ll stay and he’s been galloping out after the wire well enough on his two runs this year.
“He’s already a collector’s item, one of the last of the line, and I’d love it if I could honour his sire by making him a Grade 1 winner, maybe even a Derby winner.”
The blood that ran hot through Giant’s Causeway’s veins is still quickening the pulse today, for horses and humans alike.
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