Yaupon dominates, stays undefeated in Chick Lang

BALTIMORE – A quiet Preakness Week at spectator-free Pimlico got under way Thursday when three sprint stakes shared the spotlight on a dry and mostly cloudy afternoon.

The only graded race of the trio, the Grade 3 Chick Lang, was run at six furlongs over a fast main track. The other two, the The Very One and the Jim McKay, both were run at five furlongs over a yielding turf course, whereas three other races scheduled for the turf on a 10-race card were transferred to the main track. No rain is in the forecast through the weekend.

Here are recaps of the first three of 16 stakes to be run here this week, with the 145th Preakness being the highlight Saturday evening:

Grade 3, $200,000 Chick Lang

Yaupon once again suggested he’ll be a very capable fill-in for the Nov. 7 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland for trainer Steve Asmussen when staying unbeaten in four career starts with a four-length, front-running score over eight other 3-year-olds.

Ridden confidently by John Velazquez, Yaupon disposed of Arkaan turning for home and was never threatened thereafter, finishing in a snappy 1:09.10. The final time equaled the stakes record set by Lantana Mob in 2008. Yaupon returned $3.20 as the heavy favorite. Double Crown was second and Relentless Dancer was third.

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Yaupon, by Uncle Mo, not only could supplant the recently retired Volatile as a prime BC Sprint candidate for Asmussen, but also for the trainer’s longtime clients, Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt, who won the 2019 BC Sprint at Santa Anita with Mitole, also trained by Asmussen.

“We were actually hoping all along he could replace Mitole, and so far he’s holding up his end of the bargain,” Asmussen said by phone from Louisville. “He sure is doing things the right way. He’s putting out extremely good times and doing everything we ask of him.”

Since June 20, Yaupon won his career debut at Churchill Downs, a Saratoga allowance, and the Grade 2 Amsterdam at Saratoga, earning double-digit Beyer Speed Figures in the last two wins.

Asmussen said Yaupon was to be shipped Friday to Keeneland with the intent of pointing to the Sprint. Asmussen himself is booked on an early Saturday flight into Baltimore.

$100,000 The Very One

A Great Time ($23.40) swept past almost all of the field with a torrid late run, giving the 6-year-old Maryland-bred her first-ever stakes victory for owner-breeder Larry Johnson.

“This is huge,” said winning trainer Mike Trombetta. “To make her a stakes winner is important. It came at the right time. We’d kind of had a tough time getting her in the right kind of spots this year, so it was nice to get a chance to run her in a race like this.”

A Great Time, ridden by Julian Pimentel, won by a length over a 30-1 shot, Mr. Al’s Gal, with Ode to Joy third, and the 9-10 favorite, Jo Jo Air, fading to sixth in a full field of 12 fillies and mares.

A Great Time had won three times from 18 prior starts. She finished in 1:00.14.

$100,000 Jim McKay

Hollis ($24.80) seized early command and never looked back, rebuffing a couple of chasers before finishing a comfortable neck ahead of late-running Completed Pass in 59.61 seconds.

Shipping in from Kentucky, Hollis won for the third time in five starts since trainer John Ortiz claimed him for $50,000 in May for the partnership of WSS Racing and 4G Racing. Completed Pass was another three lengths before Love You Much, with 2-1 co-favorites Texas Wedge and Francatelli fourth and fifth, respectively, in a field of seven older horses.

Hollis, a 5-year-old Street Sense gelding bred in Kentucky, now has won six of 12 overall.