Bred by Clay Scherer, the bay is the first produce of the unraced Hildee John (Gormley), a half-sister to five-time stakes winner and GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint runner-up Chalon (Dialed In).

“This filly has a good rear end and a nice round shoulder, a lot like Cyberknife,” said Irish Hill Century Farm's Rick Burke. “She has good size, leg and bone. She's a nice foal especially for a maiden [mare].”

Also runner-up in the GI Travers S. and GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, Cyberknife will stand his second year at Spendthrift Farm for a fee of $25,000, stands and nurses.

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It takes a special kind of relationship for a couple to successfully run a business together, but anyone that’s trying should take notes from the Delacours. In just over a decade, they’ve taken hundreds of trips to the winner’s circle and made several Grade I headlines. But if anyone asks, they will say they owe much of their success to a Frenchman and an Englishman who took the time to develop them into the horsemen they have become.

Arnaud grew up on a farm in Normandy and quickly realized his dream of one day becoming a successful trainer. He started out at Chantilly, becoming the assistant trainer to Alain de Royer Dupré. After testing the waters in France, England and Argentina, he eventually ended up in the States with fellow Frenchman Christophe Clement.

“Christophe was a very good teacher,” Arnaud said. “He’s very intense in the way he trains, but I guess that’s the French way so it doesn’t really bother me. He’s really hands on, is there every day and really puts young people on the right path.”

At the same time, Leigh was learning the tricks of the trade from British-born Graham Motion.

“I started out by loving horses as a child, and that took me to Graham Motion’s barn at Laurel,” she recalled. “Working with Graham was the epitome of horse racing childhood. It was the Harvard education of racing.”

Leigh said that while she worked with Motion for over 10 years, the top-class trainer pushed her to graduate from college and take other opportunities in the industry, including a stint working under Barclay Tagg and with several other trainers.

While working with Graham and Anita Motion, she was introduced to Clement’s assistant trainer at the time–Arnaud Delacour.

“Graham and Anita set us up on our first date,” Leigh said with a grin. “In fact, I give more of the credit to Anita. She’s the one that said, ‘That’s the one you want. You should go there.’ Graham would never say anything like that. He’s too proper.”

It was a match perhaps made by the racing gods, because while they were compatible on a personal level, their racing ideology aligned as well.

“When we compared notes and talked about how we wanted to train, we looked at our playbooks and laid them on top of each other and realized they were nearly identical,” Leigh said.

When the duo went out on their own in 2007, they decided to base their operation at the picturesque Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Maryland.

“We chose Fair Hill because we thought it was a wonderful place,” Arnaud said. “There’s a lot of opportunity as far as horse placement. We’re in the middle of a lot of racetracks, so it was a little easier to be less stuck and try to place horses well to win races.”

Another major plus for planting roots at Fair Hill was the proximity to their matchmaking neighbors and close friends, Graham and Anita Motion.

“That was no small part of our decision to be here–my experience with them and wishing to emulate something like what they have,” Leigh said.

Both Arnaud and Leigh say they strongly believe that the lessons they learned from Motion and Clement were essential in getting their stable on its feet.

“Everything we do on a daily basis came from the methodology and thorough horsemanship that Arnaud and I learned from Graham and Clement,” Leigh said. “Their methods and ethics were something that we wanted to make sure we were ambassadors of going forward, hoping to be the next generation of what they were able to do.”

“When I first started with Clement I was at Payson Park, where it was the same kind of setup [as Fair Hill] with paddocks and round pens,” Arnaud said. “So a lot of the things we do are in more of a farm setting than a racetrack. I got used to Christophe’s methods and the way he does things, and Graham is really similar to Christophe.”

Leigh continued, “We would do anything for them. They went out of their way to get us started and we’re the competition. Of course, we weren’t when we began. We weren’t at that level then. But we still look up to them now.”

Since first starting out, the Delacours have collected dozens of stakes win and developed several graded stakes winners–most notably A.P. Indian (Indian Charlie), who went on a six-race stakes-winning streak in 2016, raking in four graded stakes titles including two Grade I wins at Saratoga.

“Any win is important,” Arnaud said. “But when A.P. Indian won the GI Forego S. that was pretty special. Actually, no, even when he won the GI Vanderbilt H., because winning a Grade I at Saratoga is great, but winning two in three weeks is even better.”

The Arnaud family enjoys the tranquil setting of Fair Hill | Anita Motion

A.P. Indian was reminiscent of many of the Delacour’s trainees in that he raced at 11 different tracks over his six-year career.

Other top horses include GIII Lexington S. winner and 2015 Preakness S. third-place finisher Divining Rod (Tapit), three-time MGSW Hawksmoor (Ire) {Amamour (Ire)} and near-millionaire earner and Breeders’ Cup runner-up Chalon (Dialed In).

Most recently, their sophomore filly Magic Attitude (GB) {Galileo (Ire)} made her Stateside debut a winning one with a late effort in the GI Belmont Oaks Invitational S. this September. In her next start, she ran in the money in the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup S. at Keeneland.

When Arnaud and Leigh are not busy tending to Grade I performers, they can be found entertaining their three young son.

“They’re all healthy and smart and funny,” Leigh said. “With the pandemic, we’re also homeschooling right now. Our goals are to raise our sons and enjoy horse racing, wherever and however that meshes together.”

Leigh cites Fair Hill as the perfect setting for introducing their children to the horse world.

“It’s kind of nice to stop by at night with the kids in their pajamas and walk down the shed row to give everyone peppermints. When we go home the kids smell like the barn and usually have dirty hands, but that’s okay.”

Both Arnaud and Leigh stress the essentiality of their unwavering teamwork.

“It’s a partnership,” Arnaud explained. “She keeps me on the right path. We decide everything together pretty much. She’s really good at what she does. So I think it’s a great partnership that works really well.”

“Arnaud and I working together has never been a problem,” Leigh said. “I think Anita chose well for me. He seeks my opinion on a lot of things pertaining to the racehorses and I seek his about the children and the finance side of the barn. There’s a joke with the staff that if we ever divorce, some of the guys are going to work for me and some are going to work for Arnaud. They’ve already chosen sides. But it’s easy for us to work together and I realize it’s not for some people, but the way our relationship works is very mellow.”

For Leigh, she says that her greatest achievement has been helping Arnaud fulfill the dream he had as a young boy on a small farm in France.

“Arnaud’s dream from childhood was to be a horse trainer,” she said. “Every winner is rewarding for us, for the mentality of our barn employees and for all the time, money and energy that each of the owners invests in their horses and in us. We try to do our best every day and it’s a privilege for us to get to come out every morning and do that.”

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A Group 3 winner as well as a Group 1 runner-up this year in France, Magic Attitude dazzled in her U.S. debut, winning the Belmont Oaks Invitational (G1) on Sept. 19 by 2¼ lengths with a last-to-first move in the stretch.

“I was thinking they are going slow and they are all going to kick,” trainer Arnaud Delacour said of the 1¼-mile race. “It was a good effort from her and I think she appreciated the firm ground.”

The 1 1/8-mile Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup comes three weeks after the victory at Belmont, repeating a time frame Magic Attitude had this summer between her runner-up finish at Chantilly in France in the Saxon Warrior Coolmore Prix Saint Alary (G1) and fifth-place finish in the Prix de Diane (G1).

“It probably will be her last race of the year, and the question is the three weeks (between races),” Delacour said. “Will she bounce back well? So far, she has been showing all the right things, and she had a nice maintenance move the other day (a half-mile in :51 on the dirt at Fair Hill).”

Also arriving Tuesday morning was Lael Stables' Chalon, who is entered in Friday's 24th running of the $150,000 Buffalo Trace Franklin County (G3) going 5½ furlongs on the Keeneland turf course.

The 6-year-old mare, who has compiled a 22-9-8-1 record for earnings of $991,895, will be making her turf debut in the Buffalo Trace Franklin County.

At Keeneland, Chalon has three runner-up finishes in four Grade 2 races on Keeneland's main track in her career. She was scratched from Saturday's Skipat (L) at Pimlico.

“We have always wanted to try her on the grass and there is no better place to try than here at Keeneland,” Delacour said.

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Wild About Star, a 6-year-old daughter of multiple stakes winner Star Guitar, sprung a mild upset in last year's The Very One by 1 3/4 lengths over Jo Jo Air, who is the only other returnee from 2019. Five of her six career wins have come on the grass but she has not raced on the surface since last summer after her two starts this year were rained off.

Fifth in the Incredible Revenge Stakes at Monmouth Park following her Pimlico score, Wild About Star didn't return until running fifth to The Very One foe Mr. Al's Gal in an optional claiming allowance July 23 at Delaware Park. Most recently she tired to third after chasing the pace in a similar spot Aug. 20, also at Delaware.

“After the last race she ran at Monmouth, the owner and I decided to give her time off and see how she's doing and we decided to bring her back,” trainer Jose Camejo said. “She ran two races on the dirt because they came off the turf and now she's doing really good. We'll see if we can get lucky a second time and win again.

“I feel good about her. She's much better than she was before,” he added. “She's in the right shape right now, she looks really good and she's doing very well. I think we've got a good chance.”

Alex Cintron rides Wild About Star, the 124-pound co-topweight, from Post 5 in a field of 16 that includes main-track-only entrant Never Enough Time and also-eligible Philipine Cobra.

Among the challengers to Wild About Star will be Lael Stables' Chalon, a seven-time stakes winner less than $9,000 away from $1 million in career earnings who is entered to make her turf debut. The 6-year-old Dialed In mare has raced once previously at Pimlico taking last year's Skipat, contested at six furlongs on the main track.

Chalon opened her season finishing off the board in the 6  1/2-furlong Vagrancy (G3) June 27 at Belmont Park, her first start in nearly nine months. She followed up by registering back-to-back wins in the Dashing Beauty at Monmouth and Incredible Revenge Aug. 16 at Monmouth, a race that was originally carded for the turf.

In her last start, Chalon stumbled out of the gate and chased the pace before getting up to be second behind Never Enough Time in the six-furlong Alma North Sept. 7 at Laurel Park. She drew Post 14 with Trevor McCarthy up.

Chalon's stablemate, Edward Seltzer and Beverly Anderson's Ode to Joy, is also entered with Sheldon Russell named to ride from Post 7. Ode to Joy, a 5-year-old daughter of Grade 1 turf winner Artie Schiller, was fourth to Chalon in the Incredible Revenge and has never won a stakes, also finishing fourth in the Feb. 22 Lightning City.

Wesley Ward-trained Jo Jo Air has won twice in five starts since coming up short in last year's The Very One, an optional claiming allowance last December at Gulfstream Park and the five-furlong Daisycutter Handicap July 24 on the Del Mar turf, her most recent race. Paco Lopez has the call from Post 8.

LC Racing's Captain Sam has respectively finished fourth and fifth in two stakes attempts, the 2018 and 2019 Power by Far at Parx, both times rained off the turf to the main track. The 5-year-old mare comes in off a 2 ¼-length optional claiming allowance win as the favorite sprinting five furlongs at Penn National, her first win in four tries on grass.

“She goes either way. If it rains off she loves the slop, too,” trainer Robert E. 'Butch' Reid Jr. said. “The main thing with her is the distance. She can't really get much past five-eighths so you have to run in those races when you have the opportunity. She's had two or three breezes that have been real nice so we'll go ahead and take a shot.”

Sophomores Foolish Humor, Giggling and Hear My Prayer and older horses A Great Time, Dendrobia, Tracy Ann's Legacy, Peaceful and Not In Jeopardy round out the field.

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“We wanted to just keep her fresh,” Martin said. “It didn’t look like she was out of a canter. She was just so smooth. It’s just one of those things where the track is extremely fast and she came out of it great.”

A close runner-up in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup F/M Sprint, Chalon (Dialed In) was second in both the GIII Bed O’Roses S. and GII Honorable Miss H. last term, but returned to winning ways in the Roamin Rachel S. at Parx Sept. 2. She was fourth when last seen in Keeneland’s GII Thoroughbred Club of America S. Oct. 5.

Dual graded winner Royal Charlotte (Cairo Prince) looks to return to the winner’s circle in this spot. Capturing the GII Prioress S. at Saratoga Aug. 1, the gray was off the board in the GII Raven Run S. at Keeneland Oct. 19 and was subsequently shelved for the season. She finished second as the favorite in her seasonal bow in the mud in Belmont’s Harmony Lodge S. June 5.

Also exiting the Harmony Lodge is the Bob Baffert-trained Mother Mother (Pioneerof the Nile), who finished fourth in that test and stuck around town for this one. Third in the GI La Brea S. Dec. 28 at Santa Anita, she won the Kalookan Queen S. there next out Jan. 12 and was second to La Brea winner Hard Not to Love (Hard Spun) in the GII Santa Monica S. Feb. 15. Mother Mother was fourth, but promoted to third in the GIII Desert Stormer S. in Arcadia May 17 prior to her last out effort here.

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The Vagrancy is one of four graded stakes on a loaded 11-race card, highlighted by the Grade 1, $250,000 Just a Game for fillies and mares going one mile on the Widener turf and also featuring the Grade 2, $150,000 True North, for 4-year-olds and up going 6 ½ furlongs; and the Grade 2, $250,000 New York at 1 ¼ miles on Belmont Park's inner turf.

Trained by Carlos Martin, the 6-year-old Malibu Moon mare will look to rebound after a rare off-the-board performance last out in an ambitious spot going two turns in the 1 1/16-mile Grade 1 Apple Blossom on April 18 at Oaklawn Park.

That was part of a stellar season for the millionaire Come Dancing, who won 4-of-6 starts in 2019 for Martin, including Grade 2 wins in the Ruffian and Gallant Bloom, both at Belmont Park; and the Grade 3 Distaff at Aqueduct.

Come Dancing was prepared for her Apple Blossom effort by Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, after which Martin said the talented dark bay was given some time to recuperate before returning to Belmont Park in May.

Castellano, who also rode Come Dancing to victory in the 6 1/2-furlong Gallant Bloom last September at Belmont Park in an off-the-board finish in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint in November at Santa Anita Park, gets the call on Come Dancing again on Saturday, breaking from post 5.

“Javier is one of top jockeys in the world and brings in a lot of experience, that's for sure,” Martin said. “There are certain riders like Javier who are just winners. There are great riders all over the country, but in New York, we have the best in the world.”

Come Dancing enters Saturday with a month of solid work, fortified by two recent bullet workouts on the main track at Belmont: on June 15, going five furlongs in 57.94 seconds and on June 8, going a half-mile in 47 flat.

“We wanted to just keep her fresh,” Martin said. “It didn't look like she was out of a canter. She was just so smooth. It's just one of those things where the track is extremely fast and she came out of it great.”

Lael Stables' 6-year-old Chalon, a winner of seven of 18 career starts, will make her 2020 debut. In her last start, going six furlongs in October at Keeneland, the Dialed In mare finished off the board. Trained by Arnaud Delacour, she will leave from post 3 with Jose Ortiz aboard.

Also looking for redemption is Gainesway Stable's Mother Mother, trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, who last out on June 5 at Belmont Park finished a disappointing fourth in a 6 ½ furlong sprint. One of the youngsters in the field, the 4-year-old has three victories in 13 career starts. The Pioneer of the Nile filly will be ridden by Joel Rosario from post 2.

Looking for redemption in the Vagrancy will be First Row Partners and Parkland Thoroughbreds' Royal Charlotte, who finished three-quarters of a length back to Honey I'm Good in a runner-up effort in the six-furlong Harmony Lodge on June 5 at Belmont Park in her seasonal bow.

“I wish I had a little more time,” said trainer Chad Brown. “I felt she could've won if she would've gone more to the outside on that wet track. It was a good prep for her.”

Royal Charlotte has five wins in eight career starts, including four consecutively in 2019 when she dominated races from 6-to-6 ½ furlongs, capped last July 4 by a convincing four-length win in the 6 ½-furlong Grade Victory Ride on the July 5 Stars and Stripes Day card at Belmont.

Irad Ortiz, Jr. will be aboard Royal Charlotte Saturday, drawing the inside post.

Rounding out the seven-horse field are Jakarta [post 4; Luis Saez], Victim of Love [post 6; Jose Lezcano] and Pacific Gale [post 7; Junior Alvarado].

The Vagrancy is named for the bay mare out of Valkyr by Man o' War, who in 1942 was Champion 3-Year-Old Filly and also the Champion Handicap Mare. Bred and owned by Belair Stud and trained for most of her career by the legendary “Sunny” Jim Fitzsimmons, Vagrancy enjoyed a season for the ages in 1942, winning nine stakes races that included the Coaching Club American Oaks, the Pimlico Oaks, the Delaware Oaks, the Alabama, Gazelle and Test against other 3-year-olds, and the Beldame Handicap and Ladies Handicap against older fillies and mares. Vagrancy raced 42 times in her career, hitting the board in 31 of her starts.

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