There are big plans for the promising two-year-old War Of Will, a half-brother to Irish champion and Cape based stallion Pathfork.
Trainer Mark Casse said this week that the War Front colt will hit the 2019 Kentucky Derby trail in the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte Stakes set for Jan. 19 at Fair Grounds.
War of Will came from off the pace in a sloppy 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight event on the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2) undercard and hit the wire in 1:45.45 under jockey Tyler Gaffalione. The feature race, won by Signalman, went in 1:45.29.
“Tyler geared him down 100 yards from the wire. He would have run faster, and just did it with such ease,” Casse said. “Interesting thing was he always trained extremely, extremely well on the dirt, but with his pedigree we always kind of thought, ‘Well, grass, grass, grass.’
“And then finally, actually (owner) Gary Barber said, ‘Let’s give it a try. Let’s give it a try.’ So we did, and the rest is history. I thought his maiden win was as impressive as I’ve seen this year by a 2-year-old, especially going two turns.”
War of Will finished five lengths clear of the runner-up.
“And it could have been 10,” Casse said. “Tyler said he spent half the race trying to slow him down.”
War of Will was third on debut at Woodbine before missing in the Summer Stakes (G1) by three-quarters of a length. He then ran fourth in the Dixiana Bourbon Stakes (G3) at Keeneland, again beaten only three-quarters of a length, and fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
He shares his Listed Prix de Bagatelle winning dam Visions Of Clarity (a Sadler’s Wells half-sister to G1 Breeders’ Cup Mile winning sire Spinning World) with both champion Pathfork and short-lived Birdstone Stakes winner Tacticus.
This is also the family of champions and high class sires El Gran Senor, Redoute’s Choice and Try My Best –the great-great grandsire of current leading sire Dark Angel.
Pathfork, whose progeny included the graded stakes winners Mighty High, Red Chesnut Road and My Friend Lee, has three lots on offer at January’s Cape Premier Yearling Sale –including a half-sister (Lot 63) to millionaire and sprint star Trip Tease.