Jackie's Warrior makes Spa farewell in Forego Stakes
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – For all the great horses Steve Asmussen has run at Saratoga – Curlin, Rachel Alexandra, and Gun Runner jump immediately to mind – no one has accomplished what Jackie’s Warrior has at this historic venue.
By winning last month’s Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt, Jackie’s Warrior became the first horse in the graded stakes era to win a Grade 1 race in three successive years at Saratoga. Saturday, when he makes his Saratoga swan song in the Grade 1, $600,000 Forego at seven furlongs, Jackie’s Warrior will attempt to become the first horse to win four Grade 1 stakes on these revered grounds. A victory in the Forego also would be his sixth graded win at Saratoga, a mark that unofficially seems previously unattained.
Well before stakes were graded, Exterminator won four consecutive runnings of the Saratoga Cup from 1919-22, though one was a walkover, another a two-horse field. Man o’ War won five stakes here over two racing seasons in 1919-20.
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“He is a once-in-a-lifetime horse for anybody,” Asmussen, who trains Jackie’s Warrior for Kirk and Judy Robison, said this week. “No horse has ever won a Grade 1 race at Saratoga three years in a row, and you think what Saratoga means and has always meant to American horse racing. Missed? I get all misty-eyed talking about it and I get to run him two more times.”
Saturday’s Forego and the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 5 at Keeneland are expected to be Jackie’s Warrior’s final two starts before he is retired to stud at Spendthrift Farm. Though he runs fast all the time, he seemingly does it with an unfathomable ease. Jackie’s Warrior’s two-length victory in the Vanderbilt under regular rider Joel Rosario was done without drawing a deep breath.
“For a big horse, as fast as he is, with some age on him, and for the energy he still shows is incredible,” Asmussen said. “I think Joel’s style of riding him has led to his great attitude and his willingness to continue to run at this level so many times.”
Jackie’s Warrior, who carried 127 pounds in the Vanderbilt Handicap, carries 124 pounds Saturday, spotting just 4 to 6 pounds to his rivals in a race weighted under allowance conditions.
Cody’s Wish heads the list of those trying to pull off the upset. A 4-year-old son of Curlin owned and bred by Godolphin Racing, Cody’s Wish has won five of his last six starts. In May, he won the Grade 3 Westchester at Belmont and in July he captured the Hanshin Stakes at Churchill Downs.
“We want to give him an opportunity at a Grade 1,” trainer Bill Mott said. “He’s got a stallion’s pedigree and any Grade 1 placing would help him. A win would be unbelievable, but he’s got to beat Baby Yoda.”
Mott said that with tongue firmly planted in cheek. He also sends out Baby Yoda, who is 3 for 3 at Saratoga including an allowance win last year in which he beat Olympiad – a subsequent four-time graded winner – in a performance that earned him a 114 Beyer Speed Figure.
Baby Yoda, who began his career in a $10,000 claiming race at Pimlico, is coming off a three-length victory in a second-level allowance here July 16.
Kneedeepsinsnow, claimed for $80,000 in April, showed a new dimension in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt, coming from off the pace to finish second to Jackie’s Warrior. Trainer Matt Shirer said a poor break that day may have helped his 6-year-old gelded son of Flat Out.
“The fact he broke a little bit flat worked to our advantage, actually,” Shirer said. “He took a lot of dirt, which he’s never really done before as far as I know, and it didn’t seem to bother him and still came running down the lane. Hopefully, we’ll sit somewhere midpack.”
Ricardo Santana Jr. rides Kneedeepinsnow from post 7.
Three Two Zone won a third-level allowance here July 17 with a 99 Beyer for trainer Ray Handal, who believes his horse is doing better now than he was then.
“I couldn’t imagine him training better than he was going into his last race, but he’s just blown me away since,” said Handal, referring to a half-mile work in 46.80 seconds last Saturday “that he did in just a canter.”
The 8-year-old gelding Drafted is a three-time stakes winner this year who has earned the right to run in a Grade 1. Pipeline, second to stablemate Highly Motivated in the Grade 3 Monmouth Cup on July 23, will be a rare longshot from the connections of Chad Brown and Irad Ortiz Jr.
The Forego goes as race 5 (1:55 p.m. Eastern) on a 13-race card that begins at 11:35 a.m.