[2] Gato Del Sol was owned and bred by Stone Farm proprietor Arthur B. Hancock III in partnership with one of his longtime clients, Manhattan real estate broker Leone J.
In his three-year-old campaign, Gato del Sol was winless going into the Kentucky Derby but had been second in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland Race Course.
Given little chance by Churchill Downs bettors against the favored Wood Memorial Stakes winner Air Forbes Won, Gato Del Sol was sent off at odds of 21-1, the third longest in the race.
By the final furlong marker, Gato Del Sol had moved to the lead by a half-length and then pulled away to win by 2½ lengths.
Following his Derby win, Gato Del Sol's handlers decided to bypass the Preakness Stakes with its shorter distance.
Gato Del Sol finished second in the Belmont Stakes, fourteen lengths behind Henryk de Kwiatkowski's colt, Conquistador Cielo.
In his fifth year of racing, Gato Del Sol started twice, finishing second in the Shoemaker Breeders' Cup Mile Stakes and winning the 1985 Caballero Handicap at Hollywood Park Racetrack, his career finale.
In 2000, his original co-owner, Arthur Hancock III, and his wife Staci bought Gato Del Sol back in order to eliminate any possibility that he be subjected to the same fate as another American champion, Exceller, who was killed in a Swedish slaughterhouse.