Unbeaten 2YO Colt Pointed Toward Sophomore Campaign
American Pharoah Colt Outrunner Wins Race Debut Friday

BALTIMORE – West Point Thoroughbreds, Jimmy Kahig Racing, CJ Stables and Edwin Barker’s undefeated Pascaline, impressive winner of the historic Laurel Futurity last month in his stakes debut, will get the rest of the year off and be pointed to a sophomore campaign.

Based at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md. with trainer Arnaud Delacour, Pascaline returned to the work tab with a four-furlong breeze in 50 seconds Oct. 12 but exited the move with a minor issue that sent him to the sidelines.

“He’s going to need a month off, unfortunately. He came out of that breeze, and he was a tiny bit off and they just said to give him 30 days. So, we’ll look to regroup,” West Point executive vice president Tom Bellhouse said. “I don’t know if he’ll stay at Fair Hill or if he’ll go to Tampa with Arnaud, but we probably won’t see him in the entry box until January or February.”

Pascaline is a West Virginia-bred son of multiple graded-stakes winning millionaire Upstart that sold for $40,000 as a Keeneland yearling last fall and then shipped to Europe, where he fetched $84,943 at the mid-April Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up sale in Newmarket, England. Sent to Delacour, he overcame a tough trip to capture his debut, a 6 ½-length maiden special weight sprint Aug. 24 at Colonial Downs.

Delacour entered Pascaline for main track only in the Laurel Futurity, originally carded for 1 1/16 miles on the grass but rained off the turf and shortened to one mile. There, he swept to the lead and turned back a late bid from Grade 3-placed stakes winner Studlydoright to win by two lengths.

“He’s in perfect hands. Arnaud will figure out the spots,” Bellhouse said. “He thought the horse was good enough to go to Laurel as opposed to going down to West Virginia, and he was right. [Pascaline] has done absolutely nothing wrong since we’ve had him. He’s been a horse that’s trained great and has been real forward. Hopefully it’s just a tiny setback and we’ll see him in the beginning of next year.”

The connections remain excited about the future for Pascaline, who gave Delacour his second straight Laurel Futurity victory following Air Recruit in 2023. Pascaline is the younger half-brother of Social Chic, a West Virginia-bred stakes winner that has banked $436,538 in purse earnings.

Among the spots being considered for Pascaline were the open one-mile Nashua Nov. 2 at Aqueduct and the seven-furlong West Virginia Futurity for state-breds Nov. 23.

“You know what, this might be a blessing in disguise. Hopefully, it’s one of those things,” Bellhouse said. “We were set for the Nashua or the West Virginia stake and then we’d give him a break, but it might not be the worst thing in the world. We bought him in Europe, we brought him over here, we ran him twice and now we’re sitting on go.

“Arnaud said he was disappointed, naturally, but if he was ever going to need a little break this is absolutely the perfect time,” he added. “Give him November off and start him back training in the middle of December, so 30 to 45 days and that brings us right into February and March.”

Notes: Jockey Horacio Karamanos rode back-to-back winners Friday, Outrunner ($7.60) in Race 6 and B West ($5.40) in Race 7 … Colts Neck Stables’ Outrunner, a first-time starter by 2015 Triple Crown champion American Pharoah, overcame an eventful trip to close stoutly in the final sixteenth of a mile and edge 26-1 long shot Magical Mondays by a neck in the maiden special weight for 2-year-olds. The winning time for 1 1/16 miles on a firm Fort Marcy turf course was 1:43.86 … There will be carryovers of $11,551.69 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (Races 5-10) and $3,351.70 in the $1 Jackpot Super High Five (Race 6) for Saturday’s 10-race program that begins at 12:25 p.m.