Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt's Yaupon, record-setting winner of the Chick Lang (G3) last fall, returns to Maryland looking to recapture his winning form in Sunday's $100,000 Lite the Fuse at Pimlico Race Course.
The six-furlong Lite the Fuse for 3-year-olds and up, named for the two-time Carter (G1) and Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G2) winner, returns to the Maryland stakes calendar for the first time since being run in 2002 at Laurel Park.
It is among four stakes worth $375,000 on the 11-race Independence Day holiday program along with the $100,000 Concern for 3-year-olds sprinting six furlongs, $100,000 Caesar's Wish going 1 1/16 miles for fillies and mares 3 and up, and $75,000 Jameela for Maryland-bred/sired females 3 and older scheduled for five furlongs on the grass.
The Lite the Fuse and Caesar's Wish are both part of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series. Sunday's program also includes a mandatory payout of the Rainbow 6, which carries a Maryland state record carryover jackpot of $1.351 million into the return of live racing Friday.
Post time Sunday is 12:40 p.m.
Yaupon gave the Heiligbrodts and Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen the second of three straight Chick Lang victories Oct. 1, after the race was pushed back from mid-May amid the coronavirus pandemic. They also won with Mitole, the 2020 older male sprint champion, in 2019 and Mighty Mischief on May 15 of this year. Mighty Mischief also returns in the Concern.
“Pimlico is a nice track to run at. It fits our horses,” Bill Heiligbrodt said. “Going back to Mitole when he ran in the Chick Lang, he ran solid in the mud and he still ran exceptionally well. I couldn't believe he ran as well as he did. Yaupon ran good there last year in the Chick Lang. I'll be trying to win it again next year, I promise you that.”
Yaupon's final time of 1:09.10 in winning the Chick Lang by four lengths matched that of Lantana Mob, also trained by Asmussen, in 2008. It was the fourth consecutive win to open his career and second straight in a graded-stakes following the Amsterdam (G2) last August at Saratoga. Each of them came in front-running fashion.
The then-undefeated Yaupon headed from Pimlico to the Breeders' Cup favored to win the Sprint (G1), but found himself trailing horses for the first time. He ran into traffic trouble in upper stretch and wound up eighth in the field of 14, beaten 6 ¼ lengths.
“I need a race for him very badly. After his race there, he was odds-on heavy favorite in the Breeders' Cup and got a pretty rough trip,” Heiligbrodt said. “I've been trying to get him back on a straight line and he's doing pretty good right now. It's a wonderful opportunity to run him there.”
Yaupon has made one start this year, again encountering trouble running eighth in the Golden Shaheen (G1) May 27 in Dubai. He has been working steadily since mid-May at Churchill Downs for his return.
“I'm hoping he'll run good. Obviously, he's coming back,” Heiligbrodt said. “He went over to Dubai and had problems over there, so we're trying to get him straightened out if we can.”
Ricardo Santana Jr. will be in town to ride Yaupon for the first time from the far outside in a field of seven. Yaupon has raced exclusively at six furlongs throughout his career.
“He's doing really good right now [but] you never know until you race,” Heiligbrodt said. “He had a pretty bad experience in the Breeders' Cup, so we'll see what happens. But he's a very, very talented horse. He ran numbers like Mitole.
“He's not Mitole, and I don't think there will ever be another horse like him as far as consistently every time putting him on the track and running out of his skin, but he's a very nice horse,” he added. “He's a very nice pedigreed horse so I hope he runs well. I hope everybody over there will enjoy both [he and Mighty Mischief]. They're as good as I can send them.”
Two days after Yaupon's Chick Lang victory, Hillside Equestrian Meadows' Laki became a graded-stakes winner in the De Francis (G3), his first win following two previous subpar efforts at Pimlico. The 8-year-old gelding ran his win streak over the course to two in the April 24 Frank Y. Whiteley, marking his fifth straight season as a stakes winner.
An 11-time winner from 34 career starts with purse earnings of $805,162, the Maryland-bred Laki exits a fifth-place finish behind Special Reserve in the six-furlong Maryland Sprint (G3) May 15 on the undercard of the 146th Preakness Stakes (G1). Racing on the inside, he chased the early leaders but could not gain late and was beaten 4 ¾ lengths.
The Maryland Sprint came just 22 days following Laki's second career Whiteley victory. He'll have had 51 days from the Maryland Sprint to the Lite the Fuse, which trainer Damon Dilodovico believes is in his favor.
“I always like to give him the time when I can give it to him,” Dilodovico said. “Even though he didn't place well Preakness day, I still feel like he ran well. He came out of the race good. We scoped him after and he came back clean.
“His last breeze was a little bit slower than I was thinking I'd like to have going into it, but I had a bunch of horses work slow that day,” he added. “He came out of it pretty sharp; hopefully, not too sharp. He doesn't need too much. He probably just needs me to stay out of his way.”
Regular rider Horacio Karamanos will be aboard from Post 4.
Michael Dubb's Chateau, based in New York with trainer Rob Atras, has not raced since finishing second to Grade 1 winner Firenze Fire in the Runhappy (G3) May 8 at Belmont Park. The 6-year-old Flat Out gelding won the Tom Fool (G3), also at six furlongs, March 6 in his second start of the year and was fourth in the seven-furlong Carter Handicap (G1) April 3, both at Aqueduct.
Hillwood Stable's Valued Notion has won three of his four starts this year for Maryland trainer Rodney Jenkins. Most recently, he beat stakes winners Air Token and Oldies But Goodies in his stakes debut, the June 13 Ben's Cat at Pimlico, which was rained off the turf and run at five furlongs. His other wins have come at 5 ½ and six furlongs, both at Laurel Park against open company.
Also entered are 2020 New Castle winner Threes Over Deuces, second to Firenze Fire in that year's General George (G3); multiple stakes winner Lebda, eighth in the Maryland Sprint last out; and Whiskey and You.
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