Yockey's Warrior to await Count Fleet

Yockey’s Warrior has been doing so well the last few months that he has trainer and part-owner Al Stall thinking long-term.

With an eye toward important stakes throughout the year – perhaps even including the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, if Yockey’s Warrior continues thriving – Stall is taking it easy right now with the leading sprinter stabled at Fair Grounds.

Stall and his partners passed the $125,000 King Cotton Stakes last weekend at Oaklawn and will pass the $125,000 Hot Spring Stakes there March 10, and instead will point Yockey’s Warrior to the $400,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap on April 14 at Oaklawn.

“He’s a good old classy boy,” Stall said over the weekend. “We’ll leave him right here and keep him good and fresh. Just a little long-term thinking.”

Yockey’s Warrior won the Thanksgiving Handicap and came back with an easy score Jan. 13 in the Duncan Kenner Stakes at Fair Grounds. The horse is 6, but is lightly raced, and a procedure performed last year to help Yockey’s Warrior get his air has, Stall believes, put his horse in the best form of his life.

◗ Champion Forever Unbridled posted the first timed workout of her 6-year-old season when she went a half-mile in 49.40 seconds on Saturday. Forever Unbridled won the Breeders’ Cup Distaff in her most recent start and received an Eclipse Award as the leading older female dirt horse of 2017.