Carpe Diem , whose $1.6 million sale price was the co-highest at the Ocala Breeders' Sale Co. March sale of selected 2-year-olds in training, led all the way to win his career debut Sept. 1 at Saratoga Race Course.
The son of Giant's Causeway captured the 5 1/2-furlong maiden special weight race by a comfortable 2 1/2 lengths for John Velazquez, who was riding for trainer Todd Pletcher.
Off at 7-10 odds, Carpe Diem set quick fractions--:21.88 and :44.90 through a half-mile--and willingly responded when challenged in the stretch. Final time was 1:03.99 on a fast track.
The chestnut colt is owned jointly by WinStar Farm and Stonestreet Stables, the latter making the winning bid after he worked an eighth of a mile in :10 1/5 at the OBS under-tack preview show. Produced by the stakes-winning Unbridled's Song mare Rebridled Dreams, who was grade II-placed, he was offered by Giuseppe Iadisernia's Northwest Stud.
Carpe Diem was bred in Kentucky by Gerry O'Meara's Coffee Pot Stable. He is half brother to 2010 Dixiana Breeders' Futurity (gr. I) winner J. B.'s Thunder, by Thunder Gulch, and English stakes winner Doncaster Rover, a son of War Chant who was multiple group-placed. Northwest Stud enjoyed a lucrative pinkhooking profit after securing the colt for $550,000 at the Keeneland September sale from consignor Beau Lane Bloodstock.
