A field of nine, including several impressive debut winners, are set to line up in Saturday's GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity S. at Keeneland, a 'Win and You're In' for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile.
Founder (Upstart) was green, but awfully good at first asking, graduating by a neck over his Chad Brown-trained stablemate and next out winner Highly Motivated (Into Mischief) in the Saratoga mud going six furlongs Aug. 29. He brought $600,000 from Jeff Drown and Don Rachel after breezing a quarter in :21 flat at OBS March.
Godolphin homebred Essential Quality (Tapit), from the same female family as champion Folklore (Tiznow), received the 'TDN Rising Star' designation after overcoming some mid-stretch traffic trouble en route to an eye-catching debut win going six furlongs on the GI Kentucky Derby undercard at Churchill Downs Sept. 5. The gray is trained by Brad Cox.
Drawn widest of all in post nine is King Fury (Curlin), the lone runner in the field with a win at the Breeders' Futurity distance of 1 1/16 miles. The first and only foal out of the late Grade I winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Taris (Flatter) made a good-looking wide move on the far turn to win his debut going away at two turns beneath the Twin Spires Sept. 3.
Upstriker (Upstart) earned the field's top Beyer Speed Figure of 81 in a five-length debut tally going 6 1/2 furlongs at Ellis Aug. 30, while Calibrate (Distorted Humor) battled throughout and won going away on debut at that same distance at Saratoga Aug. 15. The latter has worked a trio of bullets at Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen's Saratoga base since.
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