Caravel

This Pennsylvania-bred filly started her career with three consecutive victories. She broke her maiden by 1 1/4 lengths on the turf at Penn National on June 24, 2020, then crushed a Pennsylvania-bred allowance field at the same track on July 29. On Aug. 24, she won her first stakes race, taking the Lady Erie Stakes at Presque Isle Downs by 3 1/4 lengths. After a third-place finish in the Hilltop Stakes at Pimlico, Caravel bounced back with a win in the Malvern Rose Stakes at Presque Isle on Oct. 22.

Caravel began her 4-year-old season with a third-place finish in the License Fee Stakes at Belmont Park on Apr. 30, 2021. However, she quickly found her best form after that. She won The Very One Stakes at Pimlico on May 14 and the Goldwood Stakes at Monmouth Park on June 25. On the strength of those two wins, she was the even-money favorite in the Grade 3 Caress Stakes at Saratoga on July 24. She stalked the pace and drew away to victory. It was the first graded stakes win for co-owner, trainer, and breeder Elizabeth Merryman. 

Caravel was transferred to Graham Motion after the Caress and finished third in her next start in the Grade 1 Highlander Stakes at Woodbine, but then went off form and finished off the board in her final two 2021 starts, including a last-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.

In 2022, she began her 5-year-old season with trainer Brad Cox and won the listed Queen Stakes in wire-to-wire finish over Turfway Park’s synthetic track. After a sixth-place effort in a Grade 2 stakes at Churchill Downs in May, Caravel captured her second graded stakes with another pacesetting victory, this time in the Grade 3 Intercontinental Stakes at Belmont Park on June 10.

Following that win, Caravel finished a disappointing last of nine when favored in the Grade 3 Caress Stakes at Saratoga. She rebounded to win a listed stakes later in Saratoga’s summer meet, and then finished fourth when trying the synthetic Tapeta surface in the Grade 2 Presque Isle Masters Stakes on Sept. 19.

Caravel then returned to turf and made her first start at Keeneland a winning one by taking the Grade 3 Franklin Stakes on Oct. 16.

With that course-and-distance win at Keeneland in her back pocket, Caravel made her next start back at Keeneland when the 5-year-old mare took on the boys in the Grade 1 $1 million Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint on Nov. 5. Caravel was sent off as a 42-1 longshot in the field of 14 horses but took advantage of a bad start by the speedy favorite, Golden Pal, to sprint out to the lead in reasonable fractions of :21.4 and :44.1. Caravel went wire-to-wire to win by a half a length over runner-up Emaraaty Ana. She completed the 5 1/2 furlongs in a time of 1:01.79.

Caravel returned from a five-month layoff at the site of her career-defining Breeders’ Cup win as she made her 2023 debut in the $350,000 Shakertown Stakes on the Keeneland turf. She went right to the front in the Shakertown, was headed in deep stretch, and fought on bravely in the closing strides to turn away Bad Beat Brian by a neck. Facing females only in her next start on the Longines Kentucky Oaks undercard, Caravel was a decisive winner of the Unbridled Sidney Stakes presented by Turfway Park Racing & Gaming.

Caravel was back in against the boys and back in a Grade 1 race in her next start when favored against a loaded 14-horse field in the $400,000 Jaipur Stakes on June 10 at Belmont Park. Riding high on a four-race winning stretch, Caravel looked unbeatable when stretching her winning streak to five in a row in the Jaipur under regular rider Tyler Gaffalione. Caravel pressed the pace all the way, put away all other speed horses, got the lead in the stretch, and extended in front to win by three-quarters of a length in a blazing six-furlong winning time of 1:07.93. The Jaipur was a Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" race for the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint, meaning than Caravel has locked up a spot in the Breeders' Cup starting gate to try to defend her title. 

Caravel was bred in Pennsylvania by the sire Mizzen Mast out of the mare Zeezee Zoomzoom by Congrats.