Commonwealth next up for Yockey's Warrior

Yockey’s Warrior, the 5-year-old sprinter whose three-race win streak includes the Thanksgiving Handicap at Fair Grounds, will make his next start in the seven-furlong, $250,000 Commonwealth Stakes on April 8 at Keeneland, trainer Al Stall said.

Yockey’s Warrior most recently shipped to Oaklawn Park to win a high-level allowance race, and he had been considered for the six-furlong Count Fleet Sprint Handicap there next month, but Stall wants to focus on longer sprints with Yockey’s Warrior, who won at Keeneland last fall.

“We’re focusing on seven-eighths races,” Stall said. “The Commonwealth could set us up for the Churchill Downs [Stakes], too. He’ll do all his works here at Fair Grounds and ship straight to Keeneland to run.”

On Monday, Stall sent out Tom’s d’Etat to a successful 4-year-old debut, and the colt, running for the first time since winning a 1 1/8-mile maiden race last summer at Saratoga, continued to look like a stakes horse in the making.

Tom’s d’Etat and jockey David Flores pressed a fast half-mile pace of 46.19 seconds, took the lead at the top of the homestretch, and steadily drew clear to win by 3 3/4 lengths. Tom’s d’Etat ran the mile and 70 yards in 1:41.51 and got a career-best 91 Beyer Speed Figure.

“Tom looks good this morning,” Stall said by e-mail Tuesday. “We’re hoping for an allowance Derby week at Churchill. I’m impressed by his quickness and agility for a massive horse. He made the lead and pulled himself up, too, which makes you think there’s more there. The farther the better for him.”

Tom’s d’Etat is by Smart Strike and out of Julia Tuttle and was purchased as a yearling for $330,000 by Gayle Benson’s GMB Racing. He was a little slow to make the races, debuting last May, and needed the summer to mature and the fall to get over minor bone bruising, but Tom’s d’Etat looks like a runner.