Champagne Stakes | Horse Racing Free Tips

High Oak May Go For BC Juvenile Spot In Champagne At Belmont

LRE Racing and JEH Racing Stable's High Oak improved to 2-for-2 with an impressive 4 1/4-length score in Saturday's $200,000 Grade 2 Saratoga Special presented by Miller Lite, a 6 1/2-furlong sprint for juveniles at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, the Gormley bay bid three-wide at the top of the lane under Junior Alvarado, overtaking Doctor Jeff and the runner-up Gunite to stop the clock in 1:16.53.

High Oak closed to win his debut by a neck sprinting 5 1/2-furlongs in June at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., but the bettors let the $70,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase leave the gate at odds of 10-1 on Saturday.

Mott said High Oak ran to his training, including a bullet half-mile breeze in :48.11 seconds on August 7 on the Oklahoma dirt training track.

“We were pleased but not totally surprised,” Mott said. “He had been working quite well and he had run well enough in his first race.”

Mott said he was pleased with how High Oak, who garnered a career-best 90 Beyer Speed Figure, finished up the race.

“He was determined,” Mott said.

While Mott said he will leave all options open, the next likely consideration for High Oak is the $500,000 Grade 1 Champagne on October 2 at Belmont, which offers a “Win and You're In” berth to the $2 million Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile on November 5 at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif.

The win by High Oak completed a Mott-trained double that launched a race earlier when Godolphin homebred Speaker's Corner drew off to a 5 1/4-length allowance score, registering a 101 Beyer.

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With Jose Ortiz up, the 3-year-old Street Sense bay bobbled at the start of the seven-furlong main-track sprint but quickly found his footing to track the pacesetting Mahaamel from third before taking command at the five-sixteenths and powering home in a final time of 1:22.29.

Speaker's Corner graduated at second asking with a three-quarter length score over eventual graded-stakes placed Caddo River and multiple graded-stakes winner Greatest Honour in a seven-furlong maiden special weight in October at Belmont.

Mott said he had hoped to start Speaker's Corner around two turns but was pleasantly surprised at Saturday's one-turn score.

“Visually, he ran good and numbers-wise he ran good. And he came back good, too,” Mott said. “We had entered him in a two-turn race the day before which didn't fill thinking that this might not work out that well for him because I knew there would be some fast horses in there, but we got lucky and it worked out.”

Mott said he had initially hoped to get the lightly-raced colt to the Grade 1 Runhappy Travers slated for August 28 at the Spa but circumstances led to a more patient schedule.

“That's what we were hoping for, but it didn't work out that way. One little setback after another and before you know it, the Travers is upon us,” Mott said. “There's other races and we'll have to make it count somewhere else, hopefully.”

Among a number of options for Speaker's Corner is the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby on September 25 at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Penn.

“That would have to be on the radar. It would fit into the timing,” Mott said. “But everything is an option. We try to keep all our options open.”

LRE Racing and JEH Racing Stable's Casa Creed closed five-wide to finish third in Saturday's Grade 1 Fourstardave, just two lengths in arrears of the more prominently placed Got Stormy.

The 5-year-old Jimmy Creed bay entered the one-mile inner turf test from a two-length score in the six-furlong Grade 1 Jackpocket Jaipur on June 5 at Belmont.

“He ran a good race. It's hard not to be pleased with his effort,” Mott said.

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Australia: A Champagne End To The Sydney Autumn Carnival

The Championships at Randwick may have come and gone, but Sydney's final two Group One races of the Autumn Carnival, the Champagne Stakes and All Aged Stakes, headline a 9-race card at Randwick this Friday night. Live-stream the card on the new Sky Racing World App or watch the broadcast live on TVG (First Post: 9:55pm ET / 6:55pm PT).

Just as The Championships bear similarities to the Breeders' Cup, there are parallels between Australia's and America's Champagne Stakes: both races were inaugurated in the 1860s and are staged late in the season for 2-year-olds at a mile, and both have produced future Classic winners and Horses of the Year. Belmont's Champagne Stakes has been won by future Triple Crown champions Count Fleet and Seattle Slew, and its winners now earn qualifying points to the following season's Kentucky Derby. Randwick's Champagne Stakes serves a dual purpose, both as a glimpse of Classic potential and as the culmination of a juvenile Triple Crown series. Six horses have swept Sydney's 2-year-old Triple Crown, but the possibility of a seventh was extinguished when last month's Golden Slipper winner Stay Inside was immediately sent for a layoff.

Despite Sires Produce winner Anamoe also being rested until next season, the second leg of the juvenile Triple Crown provides the top pair in Champagne wagering. Hilal (5-2) and Captivant (3-1) finished 2nd and 3rd in the 7-furlong Sires Produce. The other main formline is from last week's Fernhill Handicap, whose participants are the only runners to have experience going a mile. Converge (6-1) carried high weight to win the Fernhill, and is therefore advantaged under the Champagne's set weights versus those he vanquished. Converge was the first of two winners last Friday night sired by Frankel (the other, Hungry Heart, gave Frankel his first Classic victory Down Under by capturing the Australian Oaks). American racing fans looking to spice up an exotic wager might be drawn to Patton (70-1), a son of American Pharoah who will carry the famous Spendthrift silks into battle.

The Champagne will be served at 9.55 p.m. Pacific as Race 6, and followed 40 minutes later by the All Aged Stakes. Sydney's final Group One race of the season was so named because horses of all ages are eligible. However, despite a huge weight advantage under the race's weight-for-age conditions, it is a rarity to see a late-season 2-year-old take on elders. Still, this year's field does justice to the name by running the gamut from a trio of 3-year-olds to an 8-year-old! Wagering is headed by lone 4-year-old Masked Crusader (2-1), on the strength of his outstanding runner-up performance behind Nature Strip in the TJ Smith Stakes on Day One of The Championships. The Godolphin pair of Savatiano (6-1) and Cascadian (8-1) are both last-start G1 winners. Savatiano, a daughter of Street Cry, has been freshened since defeating Masked Crusader seven weeks ago; the conspicuously white-faced Cascadian cuts back a furlong from the Doncaster Mile two weeks ago. Cascadian will again be ridden by Jamie Kah, one of many female riders in high demand throughout Australia. Kah currently tops the Melbourne jockey standings.

As Sydney's Autumn Racing Carnival winds down, focus will soon shift north to my hometown of Brisbane. The aforementioned Nature Strip will be one of the star attractions during the TAB Stradbroke Carnival, which runs from mid-May through late-June. A pair of G1-winning mares are also slated to appear in Brisbane before retiring: star New Zealander Melody Belle will look to equal Black Caviar's total of 15 Group One wins prior to being offered at the National Broodmare Sale, while pizza-loving Nettoyer will try to earn another celebratory beverage after enjoying some pink champagne in the wake of last week's triumph in the Queen of the Turf Stakes.

The Randwick card will be broadcast live on TVG this Friday night (First Post: 9:55pm ET / 6:55pm PT) alongside cards from Gold Coast, Doomben and Kembla Grange. All races will be live-streamed in HD on the new Sky Racing World App, skyracingworld.com and major ADW platforms such as TVG, TwinSpires, Xpressbet, NYRABets, WatchandWager, HPIbet, and AmWager. Wagering is also available via these ADW platforms. Fans can get free access to live-streaming, past performances and expert picks on all races at skyracingworld.com.

A native of Brisbane, Australia, Michael Wrona has called races in six countries. Michael's vast U.S. experience includes; race calling at Los Alamitos, Hollywood Park, Arlington and Santa Anita, calling the 2000 Preakness on a national radio network and the 2016 Breeders' Cup on the International simulcast network. Michael also performed a race call voiceover for a Seinfeld episode called The Subway.

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Grade I Winner Complexity to Stand at Airdrie

Klaravich Stables, Inc.’s Complexity (Maclean’s Music) will stand stud at Brereton and Elizabeth Jones’s Airdrie Stud upon his retirement from racing, the farm announced Thursday.

Trained throughout his career by Chad Brown, Complexity was a dominant winner of his most recent start, the GII Kelso H. at Belmont, where he defeated multiple Grade I winner Code of Honor (Noble Mission) by two lengths in a time of 1:33 4/5, earning a 110 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest number earned by any horse at a mile or longer in 2020. The Daily Racing Form currently lists him as the favorite for both the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.

Complexity was named a TDN Rising Star in his six-furlong two-year-old debut at Saratoga when drawing off to win by 4 ¼ lengths in 1:09 3/5. Made the favorite for the Grade I Champagne S. in his second start, Complexity led every step of the way through fractions of :22 2/5, :45 1/5 and 1:09 2/5 en route to a three-length victory. His final time of 1:34 3/5 trails only Uncle Mo (by .12 seconds) in the last 35 runnings of race, better than Jackie’s Warrior, Tiz the Law, Scat Daddy, Daredevil, Union Rags, Maria’s Mon, First Samurai, Dehere, Easy Goer and Forty Niner amongst more recent winners.

While a quarter crack partially derailed his sophomore campaign, Complexity still managed to run one of the fastest Ragozin numbers of his three-year-old crop when earning a 3 in a dominant 7 ¼ length win against older horses at Aqueduct. As a four-year-old in 2020, Complexity has again returned to top form. Following an impressive allowance victory over the Win Win Win (Hat Trick {Jpn}) at Belmont, Complexity laid down fractions of :44 3/5 and 1:08 4/5 amidst a blinding rainstorm in Saratoga’s GI 1 Forego S. before being caught in the last few jumps by Win Win Win.

Bred in Kentucky by Stonestreet Holdings, LLC, Complexity is out of the Yes It’s True mare Goldfield, who has produced three black-type horses from five to race including Valadorna, winner of the Grade III Doubledogdare S. and a narrow second in the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. A $375,000 September yearling purchase by Mike Ryan, Complexity was the most expensive yearling from any of the early crops of Maclean’s Music.

Said his trainer Chad Brown, “”Complexity is a very rare horse that has been number one at every stage of his life. He was the most expensive yearling by his sire, the most highly regarded two-year-old at Stonestreet and, by far, our stable’s best colt of his crop. He’s an exceptional talent.”

Added Airdrie’s Bret Jones; “We are extremely grateful to Seth Klarman and Chad Brown for the opportunity to stand Complexity. His resume is that of a sensational stallion prospect. He was a brilliantly precocious Champagne winner that has trained on to run the highest speed figure of any horse in America at a mile or more. He’s by a truly ascendant sire that looks to have every chance to be important. He’s from a top-class Stonestreet female family, he was purchased by one of the all-time great judges in Mike Ryan and his talents are revered by one of the all-time great trainers in Chad Brown. Our hope is that he will be Mr. Klarman’s next Breeders’ Cup winner and we are committed to giving him tremendous mare support in working to make him a great Airdrie stallion.”

Complexity will stand for $12,500 S&N for any contract signed and returned before this year’s Breeders’ Cup.

Airdrie also announced the entirety of its 2021 fees. Said Bret Jones, “In keeping with what should always be the goal of any stallion farm, we feel we have priced our stallions where breeders have the opportunity to profit in the sales ring and help their mare produce Saturday horses. We are extremely proud of our young roster that includes Cairo Prince, the leading third-crop sire by stakes winners, stakes horses, graded stakes winners and graded stakes horses; Upstart, who is currently the number one first-crop sire in America by winners and is equaled only by Maclean’s Music with his four 80+ Beyer performances by his two-year-olds amongst all stallions; and Summer Front, who is outpaced only by American Pharoah and Constitution with three graded stakes winners from his first crop of 3-year-olds. All three of these leading young stallions began their stallion careers at a fee of $10,000 and we feel demonstrate the success that comes from the tremendous support they receive from Airdrie and our incredible, loyal breeders. Our Grade I sires Creative Cause and Include have come from similarly humble beginnings to become successful, proven stallions and we could not be more bullish on our young roster that includes Collected, Preservationist, McCraken, American Freedom, Divisidero and, of course, our new stallion, Complexity. As always, we look forward to the upcoming season and helping the wonderful breeders that make our sport happen in any way we can.”

Their 2021 Roster & Fees (all fees on Stands & Nurses terms*) is as follows:

American Freedom, $6,000
Cairo Prince, $15,000
Collected, $17,500
Complexity, $12,500
Creative Cause, $7,500
Divisidero, $5,000
Include, $5,000
McCraken, $6,000
Preservationist, $10,000
Summer Front, $10,000
Upstart, $10,000

*5% discount applies for payment by Nov 1 of year bred, on LF terms

**New for 2021

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Spendthrift Secures Breeding Rights to Jackie’s Warrior

B. Wayne Hughes’s Spendthrift Farm has acquired the breeding rights to undefeated multiple Grade I-winning juvenile Jackie’s Warrior (Maclean’s Music–Unicorn Girl, by A.P. Five Hundred), recent winner of Belmont’s GI Champagne S., a ‘Win and You’re In’ event to the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keenland next month. Trained by Steve Asmussen, the J & J Stables-bred colt has earnings of $402,564 in four career starts for owners Kirk and Judy Robison.

“Jackie’s Warrior is proving to be one of the fastest 2-year-olds to come around in the last decade or more, and we are extremely excited to follow his racing career and witness the special things he can accomplish before he joins us at Spendthrift,” said Ned Toffey, Spendthrift general manager. “For such an imposing colt, Jackie’s Warrior is extraordinarily athletic and light on his feet. We could not be more impressed by the way he continues to run good fields off their feet and pour it on late when he lengthens that beautiful stride of his.”

Jackie’s Warrior was a dominant 5 1/2-length winner in Saturday’s Champagne, completing the mile event in 1:35.42. He earned a 100 Beyer for the win, marking the fastest Champagne since Daredevil in 2014.

Last month, Jackie’s Warrior established a new stakes record in Saratoga’s GI Hopeful S., drawing off to a 2 1/4-length victory. His final time of 1:21.29 for seven furlongs is the fastest in the last 28 years the Hopeful has been contested at the distance. The juvenile earned a 95 Beyer for that win, marking the fastest Beyer in the Hopeful since 2007, and his two most recent Beyers are the two fastest by a juvenile so far in 2020. The bay becomes the first horse to complete the Hopeful-Champagne double since Practical Joke in 2016, and first to win the Saratoga Special, Hopeful and Champagne in New York since 2-year-old champion Dehere in 1993.

“A month after lowering the 28-year-old stakes record in the Hopeful [1:21.29], he comes back and runs a mile in 1:35 [.42] in the Champagne and did not look the least bit tired at the wire. We are obviously very happy to be associated, and we wish Kirk and Judy Robison and the Asmussen team the best of luck in the Breeders’ Cup.”

Kirk Robison confirmed that neither Spendthrift nor Myracehorse.com would be involved in his racing career, but he will retire to Spendthrift at the end of his career.

“I wanted to control his racing career and I got that,” said Robison. “They agreed to that. Steve Asmussen and I are going to manage that. I get all of the purse money during his racing career.”

He continued, “Judy and I are very grateful to campaign this exceptional colt, and Spendthrift will give Jackie’s Warrior every chance to be a leading stallion when his racing career is over. Few do what he has done in four starts-four wins over three different tracks, three in graded stakes, two in historic Grade I races and recording a 100 Beyer speed figure in the Champagne. He is a lifetime horse and is just getting started. Steve Asmussen and his team have done an exceptional job in his development. We are excited to be part of his unlimited promise.”

The colt’s connections also plan to support aftercare throughout his racing career.

“Judy and I are pledging 2% of Jackie’s Warrior’s potential purse earnings from the Juvenile to New Vocations for their tremendous work in Thoroughbred aftercare,” said Robison.

In June, Jackie’s Warrior won on debut at Churchill Downs by 2 1/2 lengths, running five furlongs in :57.49. He followed up that effort with a three-length victory in the Saratoga Special, covering six furlongs in 1:09.62.

“In this day and age, to win the Saratoga Special, Hopeful and Champagne in the fashion in which he did it is truly remarkable,” said Asmussen.

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