Awesome Czech back in statebred ranks over course she loves in Yaddo
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It’s taken longer than expected, but Awesome Czech is finally back with New York-breds as she seeks a repeat victory in Sunday’s $200,000 Yaddo Stakes for fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles over Saratoga’s outer turf course.
On turf, Awesome Czech is 5 for 6 against New York-breds, including victories in the Suzie O’Cain at 3 and the Yaddo at 4, two of her four wins from six starts over Saratoga’s turf. Her lone defeat against New York-breds came in the 2025 Mount Vernon Stakes when she was caught behind a pedestrian pace and finished third to Spinning Colors.
Awesome Czech, a 5-year-old daughter of Mendelssohn, has not faced New York-breds since she won last October’s Ticonderoga at Aqueduct. Following that, she finished a good second to Proctor Street in the listed Cardinal at Churchill Downs in November.
She’s had a bit of disjointed 2026 campaign, with a sixth-place finish in the Grade 3 Gallorette at Laurel Park in May and a fourth in the listed De La Rose here in July. In between, she was scratched from the Mount Vernon in early June after tying up, a condition in which a horse develops muscle pain or stiffness.
Awesome Czech’s fourth in the De La Rose is better than it looks on paper when you consider she was near the back of the pack and wide and was beaten only 1 3/4 lengths by front-running And One More Time. That filly came back to win the Grade 2 Ballston Spa, De La Rose fifth-place finisher Table Flirt came back to win an allowance here on Aug. 13, and Proctor Street, seventh in the De La Rose, came back to win the Grade 2 Canadian at Woodbine on Aug. 15.
“She ran well there, I don’t think a mile is her best distance, but she came out of it in good order,” said Horacio De Paz, the trainer of Awesome Czech. “It was either go to a different graded stakes or try to space it and have a good fall when the races are back to back.”
The $200,000 Ticonderoga for New York-breds on Oct. 24 at Belmont Park is the next New York-bred turf stakes for females, though there will be other open-company options available beforehand.
Awesome Czech, a closer, breaks from post 9 in the Yaddo, a race that appears to have ample pace with the likes of Spinning Colors, Brokealltherules, and perhaps Cosmic Candy Girl all being forward factors. Bernietakescharge, a front-running stakes winner on dirt, will try to transfer her form to turf, a surface on which she is winless in two starts.
Midnight Concerto is having a solid year with two wins, a second, and a third from four starts for trainer Kenny McPeek. It appears that she wants longer than the 1 1/16 miles of this race, but she did finish second, beaten only a half-length by Being Betty in the Mount Vernon at this distance in June.
“Not thrilled about [the distance], but I like the New York-bred restricted,” McPeek said. “You don’t have many options.”
Noting the seemingly good amount of speed in the Yaddo, McPeek said, “it could set up for her.”
Marvelous Madison came off an 11-month layoff to win a first-level allowance by 2 1/4 lengths for Jorge Abreu here in July.
“She came out of the race in really good shape, I’m really happy with her,” said Abreu, who has Jose Lezcano to ride, replacing Flavien Prat who is at Kentucky Downs on Sunday.
Being Betty, trained by Lisa Bartkowski, had won two straight before finishing last in the De La Rose. Spinning Colors came within a head of a front-running score in an open allowance going a mile on Aug. 13.
Cosmic Candy Girl, the lone 3-year-old in the field, won the Suzie O’Cain when able to get away with a glacial pace. Sail With the Wind, trained by Jeremiah Englehart, brings a three-race winning streak into the Yaddo, her stakes debut. Brokealltherules has won both of her starts at Saratoga this year and will be making her stakes debut.
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