Amsterdam S. | Horse Racing Free Tips

Drew’s Gold Works For Amsterdam

Trainer Jim Chapman and Stuart Tsujimoto's Drew's Gold (Violence), who suffered the first defeat of his career when a game runner-up to Arabian Lion (Justify) in the GI Woody Stephens S. at Belmont Park June 10, breezed a half-mile in :47.88 over the Saratoga main track Thursday morning and is expected to make his next appearance in the GII Amsterdam S. July 29.

“He worked really good. He's never really been a good workhorse alone but as he's gotten older, he's more into it,” Chapman said. “I told [jockey] Jose [Ortiz] if you can follow someone, he's going to work a lot better for you. He got in behind a Rudy [Rodriguez] horse that horse was 15 lengths in front of him leaving the half. At the wire, he was still three or four lengths in front of him and then after the wire, he just blew by him.

“He's a beautiful mover anyways, but he really likes this track,” Chapman continued. “Hopefully, he can get this thing done in nice shape and we want to win the next one going seven-eighths,” he said, referring to the GI H. Allen Jerkens S. at the Spa Aug. 26.

Bred by Woodford Thoroughbreds, Drew's Gold sold for $25,000 as a Keeneland September yearling in 2021 and won his Churchill debut last May. Gone for 8 1/2 months thereafter, he resumed with a handy Laurel allowance score Jan. 28 befor winning the Jimmy Winkfield S. and Gold Fever S. at Aqueduct prior to his Woody Stephens try. Drew's Gold has amassed $302,620 to date in earnings.

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With “No Real Soft Spots to Land,” Corniche Returns

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Nearly nine months after his last race, champion and 'TDN Rising Star' Corniche (Quality Road) will return to competition Sunday, starting the late-developing next chapter in his thus-far unbeaten career with a big test in the GII Amsterdam S.

Corniche will again be carrying the white and red colors of his owner, Speedway Stables, the partnership of Peter Fluor and K.C. Weiner. Beyond that, pretty much everything else has changed since his 1 3/4-length victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Nov. 5 at Del Mar. Following the colt's long lay-up at WinStar Training Center, Fluor and Weiner announced May 2 that Corniche was being transferred from trainer Bob Baffert to Todd Pletcher. The switch was made, the co-owners said, because Baffert was serving a 90-day suspension and would be unable to prepare Corniche for a hoped-for start in June in advance of the big summer races for 3-year-olds, the GI Haskell S. and the GI Runhappy Travers S.

Starting with a three-furlong breeze June 10 at Belmont Park, Corniche has worked seven times for Pletcher. Under Luis Saez, who replaces Mike Smith, Corniche will make his 3-year-old debut in the 6 1/2-furlong Amsterdam. He drew post seven in the nine-horse field.

Pletcher has looked at videos of Corniche's breezes for Baffert and said he appears to be training the same.

“He's had a consistent work program for us,” Pletcher said. “He's not missed a beat since he came in and so, for a horse like that, that's kind of run through his conditions, there's no real soft spots to land coming back. We're starting back in a salty graded stake and hope he can continue to run as well as he has.”

Fluor and Weiner purchased the colt out of the Najran mare Wasted Tears for $1.5 million at the 2021 OBS April 2-year-old sale and turned him over to Baffert. Leading at every point, Corniche reeled off victories in a maiden at Del Mar, the GI American Pharoah S. at Santa Anita and the Juvenile back at Del Mar. Those three performances earned him the Eclipse Award as the champion 2-year-old male.

Corniche stayed on the farm and never emerged as a Triple Crown prospect. He recorded his first breeze at WinStar Apr. 15.

Corniche (inside) recently worked in company with Nest, winner of the July 23 GI Coaching Club American Oaks | Sarah Andrew

Last year, Pletcher picked up another Baffert trainee, the gifted 'TDN Rising Star' Life Is Good (Into Mischief), who has won seven of nine starts and is headed to the GI Whitney S. Aug. 6. Life Is Good debuted for Pletcher in the GI H. Allen Jerkens S., where he finished second by a neck to Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music). Pletcher said that Corniche might move on to the seven-furlong Jerkens Aug. 27.

“Could be, based on how this race goes,” he said. “That would be a logical next step should this go well.”

While Pletcher did not compare Corniche to Life is Good, he did note a link to another standout he handled, who began his career with another trainer.

“He reminds me more of his stallion Quality Road. He resembles Quality Road a bit,” Pletcher said. “This was where Quality Road made his first start for us, was in the Amsterdam. He set a track record that still stands.”

Quality Road, bred and owned by Edward P. Evans, had quarter crack issues while in the care of Jimmy Jerkens in 2009 and was subsequently moved to Pletcher.

The Amsterdam often is used as a prep for the Jerkens and Pletcher said the timing and the distance are the right combination for Corniche.

“He's proven versatile enough to win sprinting and going long,” Pletcher said. “We needed a place to come back and obviously the Curlin S. or the GII Jim Dandy S. at a mile and an eighth didn't really make sense. We felt like this race made the most sense.”

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Yaupon To Stand At Spendthrift

Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt's Yaupon (Uncle Mo–Modification, by Vindication), who became his sire's ninth Grade I winner with a tenacious victory in the Forego S. at Saratoga Aug. 28, will enter stud at Spendthrift Farm for the 2022 breeding season. The 4-year-old has the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint at Del Mar as his long-term objective before retiring to the stallion barn.

Trained by Steve Asmussen, Yaupon was victorious in his first four career trips to the post, including Saratoga's GII Amsterdam S., clocking 1:08.50 for the six furlongs, and the GIII Chick Lang S. on the Preakness undercard in 2020 which established him as the favorite for last year's Sprint at Keeneland. The athletic dark bay bounced back from a trip to Dubai for the G1 Golden Shaheen in March with a 1 3/4-length success in Pimlico's Lite the Fuse S. July 4 prior to the Forego, his first try over seven furlongs.

At Spendthrift, Yaupon is slated to stand alongside the Heiligbrodts' champion sprinter Mitole (Eskendereya).

“We are thrilled to continue our partnership with Bill and Corinne [Heiligbrodt] on their newest Grade I winner, Yaupon,” said Spendthrift General Manager Ned Toffey. “Obviously, the last time they won the Forego at Saratoga it was with Mitole, so we are hopeful Yaupon can close out his racing career in similar fashion. Aside from being extremely fast, Yaupon is one of the best-looking sons of Uncle Mo you will find anywhere. When breeders come out to the farm and see a fast Saratoga Grade I winner by Uncle Mo that is as beautiful as he is on the end of a lead shank, we believe we will get a lot of 'yeses'.”

Added Heiligbrodt: “Yaupon is an absolutely stunning physical with an unbelievable pedigree, and he might have been one of the fastest horses we have ever seen at a 2-year-old-in-training sales,” said Bill Heiligbrodt. “Last year, after four straight wins and two graded stakes, we thought he had a very good chance to win the Breeders' Cup, and he ended up being the favorite in the race. But a very rough trip nullified any chance. After his most recent victory in the Forego, we look forward to returning to the Breeders' Cup at Del Mar. Corinne and I have been racing horses since the 1980s and have been lucky to be represented by a lot of nice horses. Yaupon is our best ever when you combine speed, pedigree and conformation.”

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Jackie’s Warrior ‘Rains’ Supreme in Amsterdam

Sunday, Saratoga
AMSTERDAM S.-GII, $200,000, Saratoga, 8-1, 3yo, 6 1/2f, 1:15.46, sy.
1–JACKIE'S WARRIOR, 124, c, 3, by Maclean's Music
1st Dam: Unicorn Girl, by A. P. Five Hundred
2nd Dam: Horah for Bailey, by Doneraile Court
3rd Dam: Horah for the Lady, by Rahy
($95,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-J. Kirk & Judy Robison; B-J & J
Stables (KY); T-Steven M. Asmussen; J-Joel Rosario.
$110,000. Lifetime Record: MGISW, 9-6-1-1, $1,058,964.
Werk Nick Rating: A+++. Click for the eNicks report &
5-cross pedigree
2–Drain the Clock, 124, c, 3, Maclean's Music–Manki, by
Arch. O-Slam Dunk Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, Wonder
Stables & Michael Nentwig; B-Nick Cosato (KY); T-Saffie A.
Joseph, Jr. $40,000.
3–Crowded Trade, 118, c, 3, More Than Ready–Maude S, by
Jump Start. ($185,000 Wlg '18 KEENOV). O-Klaravich
Stables, Inc.; B-Forging Oaks LLC (KY); T-Chad C. Brown.
$24,000.
Margins: 7 1/4, 1, HF. Odds: 0.50, 3.40, 7.30.
Also Ran: Flash of Mischief, Mister Luigi, River Dog.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs, or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

Leading 3-year-old sprinter Jackie's Warrior re-established his divisional supremacy following a tough-luck short-odds defeat last out with a comprehensive rout in the GII Amsterdam S. Sunday at Saratoga.

Starting his career with four open-lengths scores, including Grade I successes in the local Runhappy Hopeful S. and Champagne S. at Belmont, the $95,000 Keeneland September buy suffered his first setback when fading to fourth after moving into a fast pace in the GI TVG Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Taken off the GI Kentucky Derby trail following a disappointing third in the GIII Southwest S. in his seasonal debut Feb. 27 at Oaklawn, the bay gamely held on to capture the GIII Pat Day Mile S. despite being pushed through sizzling fractions of :21.75 and :43.68. Again setting a scorching tempo in addition to navigating a troubled start last out in the GI Woody Stephens S., he was just worn down late by re-opposing Drain the Clock in a neck defeat.

Maintaining the confidence of the bettors as an overwhelming chalk against five rivals here, Jackie's Warrior engaged in a ding-dong battle with Drain the Clock through an enervating :21.46 quarter. Starting to do better than that rival inside the half-mile marker, he swiftly drew clear past an eye-popping :43.85 half, he entered the stretch in control while kept off the rail and finished with authority while wrapped up for the final sixteenth by Joel Rosario. Drain the Clock held second, giving Maclean's Music the exacta.

“He's a very special horse,” said winning trainer Steve Asmussen, who moved within three wins of Dale Baird's record of 9,445 victories. “I think that he's shown that on many occasions. He gets the respect I think he deserves and it's extremely fun to watch him run. He won on an off track today, which is the first time, and to get that variable out of the way knowing that weather doesn't care how important we think something is, that he'll be able to handle that going forward. With his performance today on top of what he did in the Pat Day Mile, he'll have a lot to say in the one-turn division the rest of the year. I wouldn't be scared to run him against anybody anywhere going one turn and how do I measure that? We've had some good ones, and he's one of them.”

“He broke really well today; better than last time,” added Rosario. “He's fast and then he just kept going. That's what he likes to do. He just got out of there and does it so easy. He's amazing. He's so fast. It doesn't even feel like he's going that fast.”

Pedigree Notes:

One of 24 stakes winners, six graded stakes winners and four Grade I scorers for Maclean's Music, Jackie's Warrior has a juvenile Candy Ride (Arg) half-sister named Lenni Girl and a yearling half-brother by American Pharoah. His dam was bred to Into Mischief for 2022.

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