Dual surface, multiple graded stakes winner Classic Causeway will enter stud next year at Pope McLean's Crestwood Farm, the Lexington farm announced Dec. 11. The son of Giant's Causeway will stand for $6,500 with a live foal stands and nurses guarantee.
Racing from 2 to 5, Classic Causeway won or placed in nine graded stakes among his 24 career starts. He showed great versatility at 3 when he won the main-track 2022 Sam F. Davis Stakes (G3) and Tampa Bay Derby (G2) consecutively, and then four races later captured the Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes (G1T) on the grass at Belmont Park. He followed his grade 1 performance with a close third in the Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes (G1T), only 1 3/4 lengths behind winner Nations Pride.
Classic Causeway raced as a homebred for Kentucky West Racing and Clarke M. Cooper Family Living Trust, which bred him out the multiple stakes winner Private World (Thunder Gulch), who is the dam of four other winners. Classic Causeway's half sister Hollywood Icon (Nobiz Like Shobiz) set a five-furlong track record of :55.54 at the Downs at Albuquerque.
With trainer Brian Lynch, Classic Causeway won his racing debut in 2021 at Saratoga Race Course by 6 1/2 lengths and next out was third in the Breeders' Futurity (G1) and second in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2). Following an unplaced effort in the 2022 Kentucky Derby (G1), he was sent to trainer Kenny McPeek who ran third in the Ohio Derby (G3) with Classic Causeway before trying him on the grass. At 4 and 5, he added to his stakes record with close seconds in the Essex Handicap (G3) and the listed Temperence Hill Stakes.
Classic Causeway retired with a 4-3-4 record in 24 starts and $1,519,651 in earnings. The stallion is now owned by an entity named Old Kentucky Home, which includes his breeders.
"We are thrilled to have Classic Causeway at Crestwood Farm. He was precocious at 2, and a grade 1 winner at 3. He was versatile on both dirt and turf, with earnings over $1.5 million. His sire Giant's Causeway is a top sire of sires, with Not This Time proving to be an elite sire," said McLean.
Not This Time , a 10-year-old son of Giant's Causeway, is co-ranked as the second-leading North American sire of 2024 by number of year-to-date black-type stakes winners with 16 alongside Gun Runner and Uncle Mo . He also is co-ranked as the fourth-leading sire by number of graded stakes winners with nine along with Uncle Mo.
McPeek said Classic Causeway was one of the soundest, toughest racehorses he's trained.
"His natural early speed and being a son of Giant's Causeway gives him every chance as a sire," he said.
