Jackie's Warrior brings tactical speed to Hopeful

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Two days after the 2020 Kentucky Derby is run, seven 2-year-olds will line up in the gate for Monday’s Grade 1, $250,000 Runhappy Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga, seeking to fuel dreams of a march to the 2021 Run for the Roses.

Jackie’s Warrior, the Grade 2 Saratoga Special winner, takes on impressive debut winners Reinvestment Risk and Mutasaabeq and four others in the seven-furlong Hopeful, the closing-day feature of the 40-day Saratoga meet.

With racing on this circuit not set to resume until Sept. 18 at Belmont Park, Saratoga’s closing-day card includes 14 races beginning with the ninth and final steeplechase race of the meet at 11:30 a.m. The Hopeful goes as race 13 and is the penultimate leg of an Empire 6 wager in which the entire pool must be distributed.

The Empire 6, which starts with race 9 on Monday, began Saturday’s card with a $395,038 carryover.

Jackie’s Warrior, trained by Steve Asmussen for Kirk and Judy Robison, won a seemingly loaded renewal of the Grade 2 Saratoga Special here Aug. 7. Breaking from the outside post in a field of nine, Jackie’s Warrior sprinted to the lead under Joel Rosario and set legitimate fractions while completing six furlongs in 1:09.62. He defeated Therideofalifetime by three lengths, the same horse he defeated in a maiden race at Churchill Downs in June. Therideofalifetime was the morning-line favorite for Saturday’s Iroquois Stakes at Churchill Downs.

Jackie’s Warrior, a son of Maclean’s Music, will break from post 6 in a seven-horse field Monday.

“He’s definitely got good tactical speed to do whatever anybody wants to do with him,” said Scott Blasi, assistant to Asmussen. “He drew great.”

While Maclean’s Music showed brilliant speed in his one and only start, he has sired Preakness winner Cloud Computing and the Grade 1 Champagne winner Complexity. The point being, progeny of Maclean’s Music should not be viewed as strictly sprinters.

“This horse is just like Maclean’s Music as far as he’s a beautiful physical,” Blasi said. “He’s just so strong and athletic, I don’t see distance being an issue for him right now.”

Jackie’s Warrior has worked three times since the Saratoga Special and was visually impressive working five furlongs in 1:00.18 against the older horse Nitrous.

“I think he’s coming into this race exactly like we want him to,” Blasi said.

Chad Brown trained the aforementioned Cloud Computing and Complexity, both for Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables. Monday, he sends out Reinvestment Risk for Klarman.

Reinvestment Risk was most impressive winning his debut by 7 3/4 lengths on Aug. 1, covering six furlongs in 1:09.95 and earning a 90 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest figure for a 2-year-old on dirt so far this year.

“The horse has trained super,” said Brown, who won this race in 2016 with Practical Joke. “I like the amount of time he’s had, which is good. There are a lot of promising horses in that race. Hopefully, he moves forward. He’s training like he will.”

Reinvestment Risk is a son of Upstart, who won his first two career starts at Saratoga, albeit against New York-breds.

Irad Ortiz Jr. rides Reinvestment Risk from post 5.

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Mutasaabeq, a son of Into Mischief, was a good-looking debut winner Aug. 8 for trainer Todd Pletcher, a three-time Hopeful winner. Mutasaabeq beat the filly Guana Cay, who was entered in Sunday’s Grade 1 Spinaway.

Speaking of Mutasaabeq’s debut, Pletcher said: “It was what we were hoping for. He trained like he was going to run well in his debut, and he’s trained well since then.”

Luis Saez will ride Mutasaabeq from post 3.

Beyond the top three, perhaps Ampersand would have the best chance of making an impact. While his maiden victory came in an off-the-turf race, he did it professionally, sitting behind horses and taking dirt before slipping through an opening along the inside and battling through, even when Junior Alvarado tightened things up on him aboard eventual runner-up Foliage.

“He ran like an older horse,” said Phil Serpe, trainer of Ampersand. “Junior was leaning on him through the stretch and our horse never flinched, he went through there. That’s called class.”

Jose Lezcano rides Ampersand from post 7.

Papetu won twice at Gulfstream before shipping to Saratoga, where he finished sixth, beaten 11 1/2 lengths by Jackie’s Warrior in the Saratoga Special.

Fearless Fly, a debut winner at Parx Racing for trainer Richard Vega, and Nutsie, a debut winner versus New York-breds here for trainer David Cannizzo, complete the field.