Carl Spackler (IRE)

Carl Spackler did not race as a 2-year-old, making his career debut for trainer Chad Brown and owner e Five Racing Thoroughbreds Jan. 21, 2023, on the grass at Gulfstream Park and running second by a head after leading in the stretch. The 3-year-old that beat him that day, Far Bridge, would go on to win a Grade 1 race later in the year and stakes success would also come to Carl Spackler.

Following an 8 ¼-length romp in a February maiden race going a mile on the grass, the Lope de Vega colt was unplaced as the favorite in the $500,000 American Turf Stakes presented by BMW on the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve undercard May 6 at Churchill Downs.

Carl Spackler showed significant improvement in his second stakes start as he rallied from seventh early to win the Grade 2 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes by 2 ¼ lengths Aug. 11 at Saratoga Race Course.

Three weeks later, Brown brought Carl Spackler back for another start at Saratoga, and he won the Grade 3 Saranac Stakes, his second graded stakes of the meet, in workmanlike fashion by 3 ½ lengths.

Grade 2 winner Zindaya, by More Than Ready, is the dam (mother) of Carl Spackler, who is named after the groundskeeper played by Bill Murray in the 1980s comedy Caddyshack who spends much of the movie trying to kill a gopher.