Cause We Are Loyal was the first of two stakes winners for Creative Cause in just an hour’s time Friday afternoon at Saratoga when the 2-year-old filly rallied to capture the $200,000 Seeking the Ante S. by three-quarters of a length.
Cause We Are Loyal was making her first start since a sparkling 8-length maiden special weight win at Los Alamitos Racecourse in southern California on July 15. The cross-country ship last week didn’t faze the gray filly, who didn’t have a timed work over the Saratoga track.
As she did in her maiden, she tracked the pace before taking over in the stretch, comfortably holding off the late charge of Newport Breeze for her first stakes win.
“We are so happy, and this is such an honest filly,” winning trainer Doug O’Neill said. “But you never know with a 2-year-old filly shipping this far. She was showing us all the signs that she was going to run a big race, but you never know until they do it. She held her form and I thought Mario [Gutierrez] gave her a great ride. I’m just over the moon and am so happy. My brother, Dennis, liked her at the sale and liked her pedigree and mentioned it to Paul [Reddam], and Paul liked her as well.
“I don’t know if we’ll take her back to California and run her back against open company, we’ll have to put our heads together and see what comes out of it. Obviously, she’s the most important one so she’ll tell us. There are a lot of options for her.”
Creative Cause, who had Twisted Tom win the Albany S. on Friday’s card as well, is the sire five stakes winners and 35 individual winners this year, both ranking in the top-10 on the 2017 Second-Crop Sire list.
