Blazing Sevens gains BC Juvenile berth with Champagne triumph
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - A flop in the slop in the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga four weeks ago, Blazing Sevens made amends in a major way Saturday at Aqueduct, rallying down the center of the sloppy Aqueduct main track under Flavien Prat to win the Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne Stakes by 3 1/4 lengths as the longest shot in the six-horse field.
Verifying, the 2-1 second choice, made the lead in midstretch but finished second by 1 1/2 lengths over Gulfport, who was a beaten favorite for the third straight graded stakes. Andiamo a Firenze was fourth, followed by Champions Dream and Top Recruit.
The win not only made Blazing Sevens a Grade 1 winner, but it also earned him a fees-paid berth into the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland on Nov. 4. Blazing Sevens is a son of Good Magic, who won the 2017 Juvenile as a maiden after finishing second to Firenze Fire in the Champagne.
It was the third Champagne victory in the last five years for trainer Chad Brown. Last year, his Champagne winner, Jack Christopher, was scratched from the BC Juvenile a few days before the race due to injury.
Brown initially was pointing Blazing Sevens to next Saturday’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland, but he preferred having five weeks leading up to the Breeders’ Cup than four. When the rains came to New York, Brown said “I was just sick over it” but he was committed to running here.
“I stuck with it and thankfully he handled this mud today, so maybe it was just a Saratoga thing, I’m not sure,” Brown said.
Blazing Sevens bumped Champions Dream out of the gate and was very wide down the backstretch. He was only 4 1/2 lengths off the pace of Andiamo a Firenze, who had a length lead over Gulfport and Verifying through a quarter in 23.32 seconds and a half-mile in 47.09.
Entering the turn, Prat moved Blazing Sevens down toward the inside, which concerned Brown a bit. But approaching the top of the lane, Prat maneuvered Blazing Sevens four wide, had to go out one path farther when Gulfport came out a path, but he closed resolutely to get the victory.
Blazing Sevens, owned by Rodeo Creek Racing, covered the mile in the slop in 1:37.07 and returned $19. He was the longest shot on the board by $168.
Blazing Sevens was given a 91 Beyer Speed Figure.
“When I tipped him out and he changed leads, he changed gears,” Prat said. “I was going to go around [and] then we got to turning for home it felt like the inside horse shifted out and I got a little wider than I wanted to.”
Even with the sloppy track, Brown gave Prat some confidence Blazing Sevens would be okay.
“He felt the horse would really like the distance,” Prat said. “We were hoping for a solid pace and they would come back to him and that’s what happened.”
Brown said he would likely ship Blazing Sevens to Keeneland by the end of next week to prepare for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
“I can’t wait to get him around two turns,” Brown said, referring to the 1 1/16-miles, two-turn configuration of the Juvenile.
Jose Ortiz, the rider of 3-2 Champagne favorite Gulfport, said his horse didn’t handle the slop and he came off the bridle around the far turn.
“I started asking him a little before the three-eighths pole and it took him awhile to get going,” Ortiz said. “I want to see him run on a dry track.”
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