‘Rockstar’ Firenze Fire Headlines ‘Win And You’re In’ Vosburgh

Mr. Amore Stable's Firenze Fire returns to his preferred oval of Big Sandy as he looks to defend his title in Saturday's Grade 2, $250,000 Vosburgh going six furlongs over the main track for 3-year-olds and upward, at Belmont Park.

The Vosburgh is a “Win And You're In” qualifier and offers the winner an automatic entry into the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Sprint on November 6 at Del Mar. The prestigious sprint race honors Walter S. Vosburgh, the official handicapper for the Jockey Club and New York racetracks from 1894-1934.

Trained by Kelly Breen, Firenze Fire, who captured last year's Vosburgh by 2 ¾ lengths, will try to join Joe Schenck [1940-41], Dr. Fager [1967-68], Sewickley [1989-90], Private Zone [2013-14] and Imperial Hint [2018-19] as horses to notch back-to-back Vosburgh triumphs.

A 14-time winner over seven different racetracks, Firenze Fire has claimed most of his success at Belmont which accounts for seven total victories.

While Firenze Fire has developed a reputation for his affinity for Belmont Park, he garnered a new image last out in the Grade 1 Forego on August 28 at Saratoga where he attempted to savage Yaupon in a memorable stretch duel, ultimately coming up a head shy of victory.

“It's amazing. I must have watched it a hundred times,” said owner Ron Lombardi. “It's amazing how he stayed with Yaupon while trying to bite him through at least four strides. Another two strides he would have won it, not that he would have stayed up. It's made him a rockstar. It may have cost me a few dollars, but he's definitely getting a lot of attention.”

A 6-year-old son of Poseidon's Warrior, Firenze Fire has won a graded stakes race at Belmont Park in four of the last five years, including a win in the 2017 Champagne which is his only Grade 1 victory to date.

“He's won at seven tracks, but he's won the most at Belmont, and loves that surface,” Lombardi said. “He's just such a solid horse and he showed his athleticism last time out in the Forego.

Firenze Fire scored back-to-back runnings of the Grade 2 True North in the past two summers. He was a close second to two-time Vosburgh winner Imperial Hint in the 2019 Vosburgh.

“It could've been three times, but that's part of the game,” said Lombardi.

Should Firenze Fire move forward to the Breeders' Cup Sprint off the Vosburgh, it would mark a fifth straight Breeders' Cup appearance previously finishing: seventh [2017 Juvenile], fourth [2018 Dirt Mile], fifth [2019 Sprint] and third [2020 Sprint].

Lombardi has not ruled out a 7-year-old campaign for Firenze Fire.

“He's still at the top of his game. I've had offers, but I may run him next year,” Lombardi said. “I would love to do that. I think it would be so cool. The fans love him. He's a fan favorite and he elevated that with his antics last time. It would be great to have him run back, so we'll see.”

Irad Ortiz, Jr., who has engineered winning trips in eight of Firenze Fire's 14 victories, will return to the irons from post 4.

Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher will target his fourth Vosburgh coup with Spendthrift Farm homebred Following Sea. The 3-year-old son of Runhappy has never finished off the board in five starts, which include a pair of Grade 1 placings. After being elevated to second via disqualification in the nine-furlong Haskell Invitational in July at Monmouth Park, he finished a distant third to Jackie's Warrior and stable mate Life Is Good in the seven-furlong H. Allen Jerkens in August at Saratoga.

Following Sea earned a career-best 100 Beyer Speed Figure when defeating winners going 6 ½ furlongs on June 3 at Belmont.

“He's talented and I thought he ran pretty well in the Allen Jerkens. He reacted to the dirt in his face for a while, but he finished up decently,” Pletcher said. “The Haskell may have been a little too far a little too soon, but he's held good company and had a good win over the track here over the summer.”

Pletcher said the distance should be right up his alley.

“He broke his maiden going six and won the allowance here going six-and-a-half, so hopefully it suits him,” Pletcher said.

Joel Rosario will ride from post 5.

Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott will saddle Baby Yoda, who last out was victorious against older winners going 6 ½ furlongs on September 4 at Saratoga. The third lifetime victory for the 3-year-old son of Prospective produced a 114 Beyer Speed Figure, which is the co-highest figure to be recorded by a horse this year.

Previously trained in Maryland by Charles Frock, Baby Yoda won at first asking for a $10,000 tag on May 30 two starts ahead of winning his first outing for Mott in a July 17 starter allowance at Saratoga.

Baby Yoda is owned by Wachtel Stable, Pantofel Stable and Jerold Zaro and will leave from post 3 under Luis Saez.

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Rabbah Bloodstock's Good Effort will add blinkers for his first start in North America, entering off an allowance win over the all-weather surface at Deauville.

Trained by Ismail Mohammed, the 6-year-old son of Shamardal was a three-time sprint stakes winner over the synthetic surface at Longfield Park in England last year. His best effort on dirt took place in the Group 3 Mahab Al Shimaal in March at Meydan Race Course when second beaten a neck.

Good Effort will be ridden by Wayne Lordan from post 2.

Completing the field is Rockingham Ranch and David Bersen's Jalen Journey, a winner via disqualification last out in the Grade 3 Frank J. DeFrancis Memorial Dash at Laurel Park for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.

Jalen Journey, a 6-year-old ridgling son of With Distinction, boasts a consistent 16-8-2-1 record with just over a half-million dollars in lifetime earnings.

Breaking from post 1, Jalen Journey will be piloted by Jose Lezcano.

The Vosburgh, slated as Race 5, is part of a lucrative 11-race card that also features the Grade 1, $500,000 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic [Race 7] at 12 furlongs on turf for 3-year-ols and up; and the Grade 3, $150,000 Matron [Race 6] at six furlongs on turf for juvenile fillies. First post on Saturday is 12:35 p.m. Eastern.

America's Day at the Races will present daily coverage and analysis of the fall meet at Belmont Park on the networks of FOX Sports. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/tv-schedule.

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DQ Elevates Jalen Journey to De Francis Dash Winner At Laurel

Wondrwherecraigis crossed the wire first, but it was Jalen Journey who had his picture taken in the winner's circle for the Grade 3 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md. The 6-year-old ridgling scored the win via disqualification after interference from Wondrwherecraigis compromised Jalen Journey in the stretch.

Kalu darted out to the lead in the first yards of the De Francis Dash, with Wondwherecraigis stalking on his outside, laying close throughout the first part of the race with Jalen Journey in third. Into the turn, Wondrwherecraigis closed in on Kalu and took over the lead as they entered the stretch. Jalen Journey moved out from behind the new leader into the center of the track to find running room as Wondrwherecraigis lugged out from the rail, causing Jalen Journey to check for an instant. The move was enough to keep Jalen Journey from catching Wondrwherecraigis in the race's final yards, the favorite holding on to win the G3 De Francis Dash by three-quarters of a length.

After the race, Feargal Lynch on Jalen Journey lodged a claim of foul against Jevian Toledo on Wondrwherecraigis. Laurel stewards disqualified Wondrwherecraigis to second for interference in the stretch, elevating Jalen Journey to winner of the G3 stakes.

The final time for the six furlongs was 1:09.52. Find this race's chart here. 

Jalen Journey paid $4.60, $2.60, and $2.20. Wondrwherecraigis paid $2.20 and $2.20. Kalu paid $2.80.

Bred in Florida by Edward Pendray and Dennis Foster, Jalen Journey is by With Distinction out of the Congrats mare Petunia Face. He is owned by Rockingham Ranch and David A. Bernsen and trained by Steve Asmussen. The win brings Jalen Journey to a lifetime record of eight wins in 16 starts and career earnings of $503,674.

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Wondrwherecraigis Steps Back To Graded Company In Saturday’s De Francis Memorial

With two straight wins under his belt including a long-awaited first stakes triumph and returning to a track where he has yet to lose, the timing is ideal for Wondrwherecraigis to step back into graded company in Saturday's $200,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3) at Laurel Park.

The 30th running of the six-furlong De Francis for 3-year-olds and up headlines four stakes worth $500,000 in purses on a 11-race program that includes the $100,000 Weather Vane for fillies and mares 3 and up, also at six furlongs, and a pair of $100,000 stakes going one mile – the Polynesian for 3-year-olds and up and Twixt for females 3 and older.

All four races are part of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series. First race post time is 12:40 p.m.

Named for the late president and chairman of both Laurel and historic Pimlico Race Course, the De Francis' illustrious roster of winners includes Hall of Famer Housebuster, fellow sprint champions Cherokee Run, Smoke Glacken, Thor's Echo and Benny the Bull, and Lite the Fuse, the race's only two-time winner (1995-96) honored with his own stakes race in Maryland.

Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, The Elkstone Group and Bethlehem Stables' Wondrwherecraigis enters the De Francis off front-running scores, both at six furlongs, in a July optional claiming allowance at historic Pimlico Race Course and the Tale of the Cat Aug. 13 at Saratoga, by 8 ½ combined lengths.

The 4-year-old Munnings gelding has breezed twice since over Laurel's newly reconstructed main track, most recently going a half-mile in 49 seconds Sept. 11. He broke his maiden and won an open allowance last spring to start his career in his previous Laurel races.

“It's a new surface and he's been training right along on it, so hopefully he runs as well as he did before,” trainer Brittany Russell said. “I think when a horse like this is doing well, you have to take a shot.”

Wondrwherecraigis ran second, beaten a head, in the Gold Fever last June at Belmont Park but was disqualified to third for interference. He made his graded debut running fourth to Yaupon in the Amsterdam (G2) at Saratoga, after which he was given time off. He returned after nearly nine months with a three-length triumph May 14 at Pimlico on the Black-Eyed Susan (G2) undercard.

“He ran at Saratoga and I brought him back and kept him in training for a little bit,” Russell said. “He was just banged up. There was nothing specific. He had no specific injury, but who's to say had we tried to push on that there wouldn't have been.

“He's a completely different animal now than he was a year ago, and that's due to [the owners] letting me kick him out and do the right thing by him,” she added. “He's been with us for some time, and he's special to us. He's a really cool horse around the barn. He's quite a character, so the fact that he's gotten so far along in his racing to be thinking about trying to win a graded-stakes with him, that in itself is pretty special.”

Wondrwherecraigis was ridden in all four of his local races by Russell's husband, jockey Sheldon Russell, who is out indefinitely with a foot injury suffered Sept. 9. Jevian Toledo will be aboard from Post 5 in a field of six.

“You're going to run against good horses when you're running in good races,” Brittany Russell said. “He's faced good horses and he's been winning the right way. It's not like he just gets the job done. He holds his own the right way.”

Rockingham Ranch and David Bernsen's Grade 1-placed Jalen Journey will go after his second straight win, eighth overall and first in a stakes for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. North America's all-time win leader, Asmussen owns three sprint stakes wins in Maryland this year – the May 15 Chick Lang (G3) with Mighty Mischief, July 4 Lite the Fuse with Yaupon and Aug. 21 Star de Naskra with Jaxon Traveler.

Third in the 2019 Bing Crosby (G1) and fourth in the Pat O'Brien (G2) prior to being sold and moved to Asmussen, Jalen Journey took a two-race win streak into the Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1) in March, where he ran 10th behind ill-fated Zenden. The 6-year-old ridgling has won two of his last three starts, the most recent an 8 ½-length romp in a third-level optional claiming allowance Aug. 6 at Saratoga, running 6 ½ furlongs in 1:14.67.

“I think he's progressed pretty strongly since we send him to Dubai. He didn't really run all that well over there, whether he didn't handle the trip or what,” Bernsen said. “I think it was more because he was training at Oaklawn Park and they had all those snow problems and it really threw our schedule off for Dubai. They had to cancel the prep race that we had and then they had to walk the horses around the barn for 11 days so it really set him back. I think he was really short going into Dubai.

“Since he got back from there, he's really settled in well. His last race at Saratoga was a really, really big run. It was very impressive in a really, really fast time,” he added. “Sometimes these horses just get good. He ships around pretty easily. I would expect him to put in a pretty respectable run.”

Asmussen, winner of the 2018 De Francis and Maryland Sprint (G3) with Switzerland, enlisted Feargal Lynch to ride from Post 2.

“If he repeats what he did in the last race, that would sort of validate who he is,” Bernsen said. “This is a really solid racehorse.”

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Hillside Equestrian Meadows' multiple stakes winner Laki is entered to defend his victory in the 2020 De Francis, held last fall on the undercard of the Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico when the stakes schedule was reshuffled amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The 8-year-old Maryland-bred gelding rallied to take last year's De Francis by a nose, the first graded triumph for both him and trainer Damon Dilodovico, who also won the De Francis when it was ungraded with Immortal Eyes in 2013.

“That was incredible. My first graded race. You'd like to think you don't count those things but you start to wonder if you'll ever get one,” Dilodovico said. “Two years ago, I thought he'd win a number of them. It's just the way things go. He knocked it out, and it was an exciting race to boot. It was a big day.”

Laki is 11-for-37 lifetime, including 8-for-23 at Laurel, with $831,162 in purse earnings and at least one stakes win five straight years, a streak he extended in the Frank Y. Whiteley going six furlongs April 24 at Pimlico. Subsequently fifth in the Maryland Sprint (G3), most recently he ran seventh in the Chesapeake Aug. 23 at speed-favoring Colonial Downs.

“He runs against quality horses every go. We were a little disappointed last time at Colonial. His style, it's not going to be too successful on a track like that but you never know,” Dilodovico said. “He's been training well this year. I don't really feel like he doesn't show up. They all get beat. He tends to circle back every fourth start or so and really launches a good number. Hopefully he's sitting on one for this.”

Regular rider Horacio Karamanos gets the call from outside Post 6 at topweight of 124 pounds, four more than each of his rivals.

RyZan Sun Racing's Kalu takes a three-race win streak into the De Francis, his stakes debut. The Godolphin-bred, 5-year-old gelded son of Hall of Famer Ghostzapper has won by an average of more than 3 ½ lengths during that stretch, all at six furlongs, a distance where he is 7-for-17 lifetime.

“[The owners], they're super game. They just want to have some fun. We figured this was a horse that we could win some races with and hopefully show up on a big day,” trainer Kent Sweezey said. “He's a fun horse to have. He's very easy, he's laid back, he ships well and he travels good. This will be hopefully a good spot for him.”

Sweeney first claimed Kalu for $8,000 in April 2020 before losing him two months later for $6,250. He was claimed again for the same price last August before rejoining Sweezey over the winter and finishing first or second in eight of his next 11 starts.

“I was thinking just the starter [races] would fit him for the next couple years and then his numbers started coming up real good and I said, 'Lets think about something cool,'” Sweezey said. “Growing up I watched stallions win this race. When you go back and look at the stallion register, there are stallions that have won this race. In years past there have been some really good horses come out of it, not to mention just the history behind Maryland racing and all that. It would be an honor to win a race like that.”

Victor Carrasco will ride Kalu from Post 1.

Trin-Brook Stables, Inc.'s War Tocsin was second to Wondrwherecraigis July 18 at Pimlico. The 5-year-old gelding has been off the board in both of his stakes tries this year, the May 15 Maryland Sprint and seven-furlong Russell Road Aug. 27 at Charles Town.

Terry Overmier's Whiskey and You also exits the July 18 race, where he was fourth, between a fourth to Yaupon in the Lite the Fuse and fifth to Mucho in the July 31 Challedon at Pimlico, his most recent race. All four of his career wins have come at Laurel including back to back March 21 and April 10.

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Asmussen Prepares Jalen Journey For De Francis Dash At Laurel

A three-furlong blowout Sunday morning put the finishing touches on Grade 1-placed Jalen Journey's preparations for the $200,000 Grade 3 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash Sept. 18 at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md.

Rockingham Ranch and David Bernsen's 6-year-old Jalen Journey completed the distance in :38.17 over Belmont Park's training track, his fourth work since an 8 ½-furlong blowout victory sprinting 6 ½ furlongs Aug. 6 at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

“The key now will be to see if he can repeat that race in the De Francis. That's what we're sort of looking for,” Bernsen said. “Then if he does that, we'll probably look at the Breeders' Cup [Sprint Nov. 6 at Del Mar].”

The six-furlong De Francis for 3-year-olds and up headlines four stakes worth $500,000 in purses joined by the $100,000 Weather Vane for fillies and mares 3 and up, also at six furlongs and a pair of $100,000 stakes going one mile, the Polynesian for 3-year-olds and up and Twixt for females 3 and older.

All four races are part of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series.

Named for the late president and chairman of both Laurel and historic Pimlico Race Course, the De Francis' illustrious roster of winners includes Hall of Famer Housebuster, fellow sprint champions Cherokee Run, Smoke Glacken, Thor's Echo, and Benny the Bull, and Lite the Fuse, the race's only two-time winner (1995-96) honored with his own stakes race in Maryland.

Jalen Journey is trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, North America's all-time leader in wins who already has three sprint stakes victories in Maryland this year – the May 15 Grade 3 Chick Lang with Mighty Mischief, July 4 Lite the Fuse with Yaupon, and Aug. 21 Star de Naskra with Jaxon Traveler.

Asmussen won the De Francis and Grade 3 Maryland Sprint in 2018 with Switzerland. The trainer's other local graded sprint stakes wins in recent years have come with Yaupon in the 2020 Chick Lang, Wicked Whisper in the 2020 Grade 3 Miss Preakness, New York Central in the 2019 Maryland Sprint, and Vertical Oak in the 2017 Miss Preakness.

In 2018, Asmussen won the then-ungraded Chick Lang with Mitole, who would go on to be named the champion sprinter of 2019.

Asmussen nominated four horses to the De Francis, but Jalen Journey is the only one expected to run. The others are Jaxon Traveler and Grade 1 winners Yaupon and Jackie's Warrior.

“Whatever Steve does with them seems to work,” Bernsen said. “Asmussen sort of has them surrounded in the sprint ranks.”

Prior to joining Asmussen, Jalen Journey was third in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby and fourth in the Grade 2 Pat O'Brien in the summer of 2019 after being purchased by Rockingham's Gary Hartunian for $510,000 at Fasig-Tipton's Horses of Racing Age sale that July, following a runner-up finish in the Grade 2 Smile Sprint at Gulfstream Park.

Among the top horses Bernsen has owned with Rockingham are two-time sprint champion Roy H, a 10-time winner of more than $3.1 million in purses including back-to-back editions of the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Sprint in 2017 and 2018; and fellow multi-millionaire Stormy Liberal, the champion turf male of 2018 who counted the 2017 and 2018 Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint among his 12 lifetime victories.

CEO of Letitride.com, a global computer wagering business based in California, Bernsen plans to be on hand for the De Francis.

“I was just looking at my schedule. I've never been to Laurel,” he said. “I was talking to Aidan Butler [COO of Laurel Park owner 1/ST Racing] earlier in the week and thought that it might be a good one to come out and see.”

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