Thomas on Horses
Profile: Creative Cause
Creative Cause (Eclipse Sportswire)
PPs and Pedigree
Creative Cause rates extremely high on individual herd dynamic (head-to-head battles). If you watch the replay of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Union Rags and Creative Cause were locked into each other in the stretch run. Hansen was just out there on the lead on his own, and these two very powerful horses were fighting it out with each other psychologically.
Creative Cause initially manhandled Union Rags, and then Union Rags came back at him, released him and then targeted Hansen (when it was a little too late). Creative Cause got passed by Union Rags, an extremely high-level horse, but he did not defer to him. That tells us that Creative Cause has a very, very high individual herd dynamic.
Union Rags is better-rounded, and that is why I rank Creative Cause a hair below the top horses going a classic distance. Creative Cause is very singular in his focus, and that could be a problem because he will be prone to using up energy dealing with traffic and space battles in the Kentucky Derby.
Creative Cause is all forward-motion energy. He is fantastic with nothing but space in front of him or with only one horse to battle with. His natural pattern of motion is to attack one target — to grab open space or fight another competitor.
I like that they removed the blinkers, but at this time, his group dynamic in the herd is less established than his singular dynamic. He’s gritty, and he’s a fighter.
Kerry Thomas is a groundbreaking researcher of behavioral genetics in horses. He created emotional conformation profiling, which measure’s the mental and emotional capacities of the equine. Horse owners around the world use him to profile and unlock the minds of their horses both in training and pre-purchase evaluations. Thomas’ work in the field of equine behavioral genetics has pioneering applications in all the sport horse industries, including Thoroughbred racing and breeding. 