Rodeo Creek Racing's Blazing Sevens earned a career-best 91 Beyer Speed Figure for his victory in the Champagne (G1) Saturday at Aqueduct and is possible to ship to Keeneland next weekend to prepare for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) November 4 at the Lexington, Kentucky oval.
Blazing Sevens bested a field of six 2-year-olds, all of which were winners at first asking. He settled at the rear of the field early on under Flavien Prat, and advanced through each point of call down the backstretch and moved in between horses around the far turn. Swinging five-wide at the top of the stretch, Blazing Sevens collared Verifying just outside the sixteenths pole and drew off to a 3 1/4-length score.
Blazing Sevens provided four-time Eclipse Award winning trainer Chad Brown with his fourth victory in the prestigious one-turn mile test for juveniles, having also won with Practical Joke [2016], Complexity [2018] and Jack Christopher [2021]. The dark bay colt additionally provided freshman stallion Good Magic, second to Firenze Fire in the 2017 Champagne, with his first Grade 1 winner as a sire.
“He looks good this morning,” Brown said on Sunday. “Some of them are leaving today, but there's a good chance I'll ship most of them over there [to Keeneland ahead of time].”
Brown expressed concern over the sloppy and sealed track conditions on Saturday after Blazing Sevens ran a distant third over similar conditions in the Grade 1 Hopeful on September 5 at Saratoga Race Course under Manny Franco.
“I could tell he hated the track. The fact that he got third and galloped out OK was amazing because Manny [Franco] told us that day he hated the track and that he never felt good under him,” Brown said. “These young horses, you're always learning about. They're going to catch different surfaces. These are inexperienced horses and you're going to learn a lot about them as you go. Sometimes it's going to go your way and other times you're going to have to retreat. It went our way and this horse moved forward.”
The victory was a sweet one for owners John and Carla Capek of Rodeo Creek Racing, who have three other 2-year-olds that also are trained by Brown.
“[They] are at different stages of getting on the track. Blazing Sevens is the farthest along in that endeavor, but we're excited for all of them,” said John Capek. “This is our second crop of racing horses. We're looking forward to these 2-year-olds and we have a crop of yearlings that are in training right now that we're excited about as well.”
Blazing Sevens was initially slated for a start in next Saturday's Grade 1 Claiborne Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland, but the connections ultimately ruled in favor of running locally in his final prep for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, citing an extra week in between races.
“We were booked for Keeneland a while ago on the probability we might get there and at the last minute we decided to race here as opposed to racing there next weekend, so I think all in all we made the right choice to come here,” Capek said. “Even given the conditions today, the horse ran really well. We were a little concerned with the slop, but he came through and turned it on at the end. Flavien did a great job.”
Purchased for $225,000 from the Eaton Sales consignment at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale, Blazing Sevens is the first progeny out of the two-time winning Warrior's Reward mare Trophy Girl.
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