“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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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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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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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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“We’re excited to stand Shancelot in Kentucky where we recently purchased a farm close by,” said Al Crawford of Crawford Farms Racing. “We feel his incredible speed will attract a lot of breeders and we are very actively purchasing mares at the Keeneland January Sale to support him ourselves.”

A history-making sprinter when winning the GII Amsterdam S. by 12 1/2 lengths with a 121 Beyer Speed Figure–the highest Beyer ever by a 3-year-old sprinter–Shancelot won his first three races by a combined 19 lengths. In his six starts, Shancelot never finished worse than third and registered four career triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures. After his Amsterdam victory, the dark bay was a hard-fought second in both the GI Santa Anita Sprint Championship S. and GI Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Bred in Kentucky by Charles Muth and Patrick Murphy, Shancelot retired with a record of 6-3-2-1 and earnings of $624,300.

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“He’s extremely fast. He’s got an elite amount of speed,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “It’s very important that a horse with his physical, and as fast as he is, is a graded stakes winner here at Saratoga. I think we can sit down and map out a serious future for him from here.”

As for a potential match-up with stablemate and GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt S. winner Volatile (Violence) in the Breeders’ Cup, the Hall of Famer said, “It’s maybe why there are different people [jockeys] on them to begin with. He’s just that level. We’re very fortunate that they’re both doing so well.”

Graduating by a nose in his Churchill downs unveiling June 20, Yaupon wired a track-and-trip optional claimer July 18 and breezed a bullet three panels in :37 flat over the Oklahoma Aug. 24. Carrying the same orange and white Heiligbrodt colors as Asmussen’s champion sprinter Mitole (Eskendereya), the sophomore was a $355,000 KEESEP yearling, who RNA’d for $485,000 at FTFMAR before selling to these connections for $255,000 at last year’s OBS June Sale.

Asmussen explained why the colt did not debut until this year, saying, “He’s a 2-year-old that worked :20.3 at Gulfstream for the 2-year-old-in training sale. He had very minor issues, but it was just the physics of it when you’re capable of going that fast. We wanted to give him all the maturity we could. We were trying to follow a similar plan with him as we were with Mitole for the Heiligbrodts. They had expected to run him over the winter at the Fair Grounds, but he had another minor issue, so we erred on the side of caution as far as waiting and letting him get to 100%.”

Pedigree Notes:

Yaupon is the second 3-year-old son of Uncle Mo to win a graded stake at Saratoga Saturday, following Bye Bye Melvin’s win on soft turf in the GIII Saranac S. earlier on the card. He is the 64th black-type victor and 36th graded victor overall for the Coolmore stallion. The winner’s dam is GISP Modification, a saughter of SW Swift Alliance (Afleet) and a half to GSW Sky Alliance. Also the dam of MGSP Sawyer Hill, the mare’s recent produce includes a yearling filly by American Pharoah and a Good Magic colt born May of this year. The 15-year-old was bred back to Uncle Mo this spring.

Saturday, Saratoga
AMSTERDAM S.-GII, $150,000, Saratoga, 8-29, 3yo, 6f, 1:08.50, my.
1–YAUPON, 118, c, 3, by Uncle Mo
1st Dam: Modification (GISP, $166,116), by Vindication
2nd Dam: Swift Alliance, by Afleet
3rd Dam: Stately Bride, by Tom Rolfe
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($350,000
Ylg ’18 KEESEP; $485,000 RNA 2yo ’19 FTFMAR; $255,000 2yo
’19 OBSOPN). O-L. William & Corinne Heiligbrodt; B-Betz,
Lamantia, CoCo Equine, Magers, Burns (KY); T-Steven M.
Asmussen; J-Joel Rosario. $82,500. Lifetime Record: 3-3-0-0,
$168,264. *1/2 to Sawyer’s Hill (Spring At Last), MGSP,
$366,705. Werk Nick Rating: A. Click for the
eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Basin, 124, c, 3, Liam’s Map–Appenzell, by Johannesburg.
($150,000 Ylg ’18 KEESEP). O-Jackpot Farm; B-Cottonwood
Stables, LLC (KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher. $30,000.
3–Premier Star, 120, c, 3, Tapiture–Letthetigerparty, by Hold
That Tiger. ($105,000 Ylg ’18 KEESEP; $100,000 2yo ’19
OBSOPN). ‘TDN Rising Star’ O-Sonata Stable; B-Charles H. Deters (KY); T-Michael J. Trombetta. $18,000.
Margins: 2, 2, 3HF. Odds: 1.40, 2.05, 7.70.
Also Ran: Wondrwherecraigis, Long Weekend, Liam’s Pride.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.

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