Civil Union

Civil Union, a 5-year-old War Front mare owned and bred by Joseph Allen and trained by Shug McGaughey, broke through with her first graded stakes win in the Grade 2 Glens Falls Stakes Sept. 5, 2020, at Saratoga Race Course.

The Glens Falls was her third win in a row and second stakes score following a win in the listed River Memories Stakes on July 12 at Belmont Park. In the Glens Falls, she stalked the pace under Joel Rosario and rallied strongly through the stretch to defeat Grade 3 winner and deep closer My Sister Nat by a length. Civil Union continued to impress in her next start when she held off My Sister Nat to win the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Stakes Oct. 10 at Belmont Park, earning an expenses-paid berth in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

Civil Union won her career debut at Saratoga in 2018 but was only raced once more that year and then once in 2019 before McGaughey assumed training duties heading into 2020. She is out of the unraced Unbridled’s Song’s mare Photograph and a full sister (same sire [father] and dam [mother]) to War Dispatch, a multiple stakes winner in France – with the late and elite sire Dynaformer also in her pedigree.