Tag: Steve Asmussen

Spendthrift Farm Acquires Breeding Rights To Grade 1 Winner Jackie’s Warrior

B. Wayne Hughes' Spendthrift Farm has acquired the breeding rights to undefeated multiple Grade One-winning juvenile Jackie's Warrior, dominant winner of Saturday's Grade 1 Champagne Stakes at Belmont.

Jackie's Warrior has also captured the G1 Hopeful Stakes and G2 Saratoga Special Stakes at Saratoga after winning his debut earlier this summer at Churchill Downs. Trained by Steve Asmussen, the record-setting colt is a perfect 4-for-4 with earnings of $402,564 to date 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. A month after lowering the 28-year-old stakes record in the Hopeful, he comes back and runs a mile in 1:35 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.”

“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,” said Kirk Robison. “Few do what he has done in four starts – four wins over three different tracks, three in graded stakes, two in historic Grade 1 races and recording a 100 Beyer speed figure in the Champagne Stakes. 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. Judy and I are pledging two percent of Jackie's Warrior's potential purse earnings from the Juvenile to New Vocations for their tremendous work in Thoroughbred aftercare.”

Jackie's Warrior dominated Saturday's Champagne with a front-running 5 1/2-length score, hitting the wire geared down in 1:35.42 for the mile. 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 featured Hopeful, drawing off to an eye-catching 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. Jackie's Warrior earned a 95 Beyer for that win, marking the fastest Hopeful since 2007, and his 100 & 95 Beyers are the two fastest by a juvenile so far in 2020. Jackie's Warrior becomes the first horse to pull off 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.

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, zipping six furlongs in 1:09.62. Jackie's Warrior has won his four starts clear by a combined 13 1/4 lengths, with an average margin of victory of more than 3 1/4 lengths.

“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.

The Champagne was a “Win And You're In” for next month's $2-million Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Keeneland, where Jackie's Warrior figures to be one of the favorites.

The post Spendthrift Farm Acquires Breeding Rights To Grade 1 Winner Jackie’s Warrior appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Nashville Under Consideration for Breeders’ Cup Sprint

WinStar Farm and China Horse Club’s ‘TDN Rising Star‘ Nashville (Speightstown), who took his record to two-for-two with a towering allowance success at Keeneland Oct. 10, could make his next start in the Nov. 7 GI Breeders’ Cup Sprint over the same track and distance, WinStar General Manager David Hanley said Monday.

“It’s a bit too early for a final decision, but I would say the nothing has been ruled out at this point,” Hanley said. “I haven’t discussed it with [WinStar President/CEO and Racing Manager] Elliott [Walden] or [trainer] Steve [Asmussen] and they will be the ones to decide.”

A $460,000 Keeneland September purchase in 2018, Nashville was sent off as the prohibitive odds-on favorite in a sloppy Saratoga maiden Sept. 2 and romped home by 11 1/2 lengths, covering 6 1/2 furlongs in a spectacular 1:14.48 (video). The 1-2 chalk in a non-two-lifetime allowance in Lexington over the past weekend, Nashville led past every pole en route to a 9 3/4-length score (video). Hanley said Nashville has emerged unscathed from the effort.

“He seems to have come out of the race just fine, none the worse for wear,” he said. “He ran such a big race first time out at Saratoga, but you weren’t sure that he just didn’t run so big because of the slop. I wouldn’t say we expected to see the kind of performance he put up the other day, but you sure hope he could reproduce the debut and it was nice to see him do it on a fast track.”

Hanley explained that Nashville had his fair share of issues growing up.

“He had a few little setbacks and we just decided to give him some time,” he said. “There was nothing major that was wrong with him, he had some bone bruising and he tended to be a little headstrong, so we gave him the time and it looks like it’s paying off.”

Hanley indicated that if they decide against a run in the Sprint, Nashville could make an appearance in one of the undercard stakes on Breeders’ Cup weekend as a steppingstone to the GI Malibu S. at Santa Anita in late December. Nashville is cataloged as a racing or stallion prospect for the Keeneland November Sale, but Hanley said it is unlikely he’ll go through the ring.

The post Nashville Under Consideration for Breeders’ Cup Sprint appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Rowdy Yates The Morning-Line Favorite In Friday’s Oklahoma Classics Cup

For the second year in a row, Deal Driven, a stakes winner at Parx in Philadelphia is shipping in from the East Coast to try his wares in the $175,000 Oklahoma Classics Cup on Friday, Oct. 16 at Remington Park.

In 2019, now-retired millionaire Shotgun Kowboy, a four-time winner of the Oklahoma Classics Cup, easily put Deal Driven away. This year, Deal Driven has been made the second choice in the morning-line at 5-2 odds, behind only Rowdy Yates who is the 2-1 favorite. Remington Park odds-maker Jerry Shottenkirk established the latter at the top of the line, based off his multiple stakes wins at this Oklahoma City track. Rowdy Yates won the Oklahoma Classics Juvenile last year and then followed that with a victory in the Don McNeill Stakes here.

Rowdy Yates, a 3-year-old colt by Morning Line, out of the Yes It's True mare Spring Station, is the top earner in the field with $346,556 in his bankroll, just barely more than Deal Driven at $342,896. Deal Driven, a 6-year-old gelded son of the hottest sire in the country this year – Into Mischief – comes from the Tiznow mare Tiz Merry. Deal Driven won the $60,000 Parx Hall of Fame Handicap on Sept. 14, 2019.

Deal Driven could do no better than fifth in the Classics Cup last year, beaten 20-1/4 lengths by Shotgun Kowboy, who holds the record for winning the race four times. Shotgun Kowboy took the trophy in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2019, for owner-trainer C.R. Trout of Edmond. Shotgun Kowboy also is one of two horses to have won this race three years in a row. The other was Mr. Ross from 1999-2001. Zee Oh Six won three times but not in consecutive years.

Fifteen-time Remington Park top trainer Steve Asmussen, and the country's top conditioner by money earned, campaigns Rowdy Yates. That colt, owned by L and N Racing of Tulsa, Okla., is coming off a sixth-place finish in the Grade 3, $200,000 Oklahoma Derby here on Sept. 27 at 1-1/8th miles. Deal Driven last raced Sept. 10 at Laurel, running second in an allowance-optional $50,000 claiming race at seven furlongs. The Oklahoma Classics Cup is raced at 1-1/16th miles. Jockey Stewart Elliott gets the call on Rowdy Yates, while Ramon Vazquez is aboard Deal Driven for trainer Robert Mosco and owner Troy Johnson and Charles Lo of Vacaville, Calif.

Trout will try to keep his winning streak alive in the cup with Fast Breakin Cash at 5-1 odds. His resume is blackened with excellent efforts in stakes-company, running second in the $75,000 Kip Deville and $100,000 Oklahoma Classics Juvenile in 2018, and the $70,000 Jim Thorpe Stakes in 2019. All those races were over the Remington Park surface. Fast Breaking Cash finished third behind two-time Oklahoma Horse of the Year, Welder, in last year's $130,000 Oklahoma Classics Sprint.

Here's a look at Classics Cup field of eight, from the rail out with jockey, trainer and morning-line odds:

1)    Dont Tell Noobody: Sophie Doyle, Federico Villafranco, 15-1

2)    Georgia Deputy: Ezequiel Lara, Joe Petalino, 20-1

3)    United Patriot: Lori Biehler, Michael Biehler, 10-1

4)    Rowdy Yates: Stewart Elliott, Steve Asmussen, 2-1

5)    Fast Breakin Cash: Luis Quinonez, C.R. Trout, 5-1

6)    Dak Da Man: Lane Luzzi, Kari Craddock, 6-1

7)    Kwik: David Cabrera, Karl Broberg, 10-1

8)    Deal Driven: Ramon Vazquez, Robert Mosco, 5-2

Remington Park racing continues Saturday, Oct. 10, with nine races underway at 7:07pm-Central.

The post Rowdy Yates The Morning-Line Favorite In Friday’s Oklahoma Classics Cup appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Carpe Diem Colt Sharp in Keeneland Unveiling

9th-Keeneland, $68,513, Msw, 10-11, 2yo, 6 1/2f, 1:17.98, ft, 5 1/4 lengths.
SAFFA’S DAY (c, 2, Carpe Diem–Shytoe Lafeet {SW, $332,473}, by King of Kings {Ire}), a :10 flat OBSAPR breezer, showed off similar speed on Sunday in an auspicious first outing. Let go at 6-1 off an unassuming worktab mostly at Ellis Park, the chestnut broke sharply from his wide draw and found himself attending the pace perched three deep under a tight hold. He started to pull away from his pace foes around the turn through a :46.03 half, and poured it on in the stretch under energetic encouragement to don cap and gown by 5 1/4 lengths and stop the clock nearly a second faster than the split division of this event two races earlier. Fellow firster Sound Money (Flatter) did very well to overcome a tardy start and cross the wire second, but it was soon discovered that his gate had malfunctioned and not opened in time, and he was declared an unfortunate non-starter both for his connections and bettors who included him. All Bodes Well (Bodemeister) inherited seecond. The winner is half to Ontology (Tapit), GSP, $144,050, a yearling colt by Flintshire (GB) and a filly foal by Louisiana-based Jay Gatsby. His dam, purchased for $8,500 at KEENOV ’18, was bred to El Deal for 2021. Sales history: $19,000 RNA Wlg ’18 KEENOV; $50,000 Ylg ’19 OBSOCT; $125,000 2yo ’20 OBSAPR. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $42,000. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
O-L and N Racing LLC & Clark O. Brewster; B-SF Bloodstock LLC (KY); T-Steven M. Asmussen.

 

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