Maclean's Music

Kirk and Judy Robison's Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) slammed the door on second choice Reinvestment Risk (Upstart) and spurted clear in Saturday's GI Champagne S. at Belmont to increase his perfect record to four-for-four. The race was a "Win and You're In" qualifier for the Nov. 6 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile for which the Steve Asmussen pupil figures to go favored. A debut winner from next-out 'TDN Rising Star' Therideofalifetime (Candy Ride {Arg}) at Churchill June 19, he defeated the same foe in the GII Saratoga Special S. Aug. 7....

6th-Pimlico, $50,120, Msw, 9-24, 2yo, f, 6f, 1:10.88, ft. WHISKEY AND RYE (f, 2, Maclean's Music--Ava G, by Afternoon Deelites) Sales history: $150,000 2yo '20 EASMAY. Lifetime Record: 2-1-0-0, $25,200. O-Mens Grille Racing; B-Alex Venneri Racing, LLC (KY); T-Hamilton A. Smith. The brave 2-year-old winning filly WHISKEY AND RYE carries another ingenious name derived from the famous song "American Pie" by Don McLean, an American singer-songwriter who had his very great day in the sun in the early '70s. "And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye/Singin' this'll...

The Keeneland September Yearling Sale opened its first of two Book 4 sessions with a workmanlike day of trade in Lexington Sunday. C.J. Johnsen made the day's highest bid, going to $210,000 to acquire a filly by Ghostzapper (hip 2342) for his CJ Thoroughbreds. Three yearlings tied for the day's second highest price of $190,000: a colt by Maclean's Music and a pair of colts by first-crop sire Unified. A total of 31 yearlings brought six figures on the day. In all, 237 yearlings sold Sunday for $11,516,500. The session...

J. Kirk Robison's Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music), the "other" Steve Asmussen runner signed on for Friday's GII Saratoga Special S., out-footed them all and never looked back en route to a powerful score at the Spa. The imposing bay took his Churchill debut by 2 1/2 lengths June 19, and was flattered when the runner-up that day, re-opposing Therideofalifetime (Candy Ride {Arg}) returned to romp at Keeneland and earn 'TDN Rising Star' status. He was less proven on paper than stablemate, GIII Bashford Manor S. winner and 'Rising Star' Cazadero...

"Bob's your uncle." It's one of those baffling British expressions, of no coherent origin. You use it much as the French would say: "et voila!" Typically, it rounds off some counsel so elementary that the dividends are almost mechanical. Do this simple thing, and "you're all set". For instance: go to a horse sale; buy a colt with Classic pedigree; put him into training with a silver-haired dude in California--and Bob's your uncle. Not that it can have been terribly easy for Bob Baffert to show his most avuncular side...

The flashy Uncle Chuck went from maiden winner to graded winner as he ran away from just three foes as the heavy favorite here. A seven-length romper going a flat mile at Santa Anita June 12, the half-brother to brilliant debut winner and sire Maclean's Music (Distorted Humor) was bet down to 13-1 in last week's GI Kentucky Derby future pool and gave his backers reason to feel good about their chances Saturday. With stablemate and MGSW Thousand Words the main danger on paper, the leggy dark bay chased the...

TIMONIUM, MD - The three-day under-tack preview ahead of next week's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale concluded Friday under glorious blue skies and temperatures in rising steadily into the 80s through seven sets of workers. "It was a terrific under-tack show. All of the credit goes to [Maryland State Fairgrounds maintenance director Don] Chief Denmeyer," said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning, Jr. "We had challenging weather at the beginning of the week and this racetrack was as good, from beginning to end, as any under-tack show we've ever conducted. The...

3rd-Churchill Downs, $77,248, Msw, 6-19, 2yo, 5f, :57.49, ft. JACKIE'S WARRIOR (c, 2, Maclean's Music--Unicorn Girl, by A. P. Five Hundred) topped off a concise worktab with a bullet half-mile from the gate in :47 1/5 (1/35) at Keeneland June 9 and was made the 21-10 second favorite on debut. Hustled along early to contest the pace from the inside, Jackie's Warrior was taken hold of by Ricardo Santana, Jr. at the 3 1/2-furlong pole and switched out into the two path. Despite having lost some momentum in so doing,...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 1st-BEL, $64K, Msw, 2yo, 5fT, 1:15 p.m. ET International star sire power will be on display in Friday's opener at Belmont, as Coolmore unveils RIVER TIBER (War Front) against Gary Barber's Mrs Frankel (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) and six other juveniles in this intriguing turf sprint, the first 2-year-old turf race in New York this year. River Tiber, a $500,000 Keeneland September buy, is a full-brother to 2015 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf hero Hit It a Bomb and 2016 G1 Cheveley Park S. victress Brave...

by Andrea Branchini There is quite a Native American connection in the names of the family line of Oaklawn allowance winner FIRECROW. His dam is the artistically named CHEYENNE AUTUMN (by Indian Charlie), resonant of the 1964 very "pro-Indians" John Ford western, defined as "an elegy for the Native Americans". The late Joseph Fire Crow (sometimes spelled as Firecrow or FireCrow) was a famous and talented Cheyenne musician, nominated for a Grammy in 2001 for his album "Cheyenne Nation". 8th-Oaklawn, $88,000, 2-14, (NW3L), 3yo/up, 6f, 1:10.62, ft. FIRECROW (g, 4,...

by Andrea Branchini DAY THE MUSIC DIED (g, 5, Maclean's Music--Kelly's Question, by Mr. Greeley) Laurel Park, 1-31, Alw, 6f, 1:10.95. O-Electric Rooster Racing Stable, LLC; B-R. Larry Johnson (MD). The recent Laurel winner Day the Music Died is poetry in motion, literally. Don McLean is the author of the 1971 song and world hit "American Pie," whose most famous and often repeated verse is the refrain line "the day the music died." The song is supposedly about the plane crash in 1959 that killed early rock and roll performers...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - A year ago, Jonathan Thorne sent a son of Pioneerof the Nile through the sales ring at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred Yearlings Sale and watched as the youngster sold for a sale-record $600,000. It was a gratifying moment for the longtime New York breeder who has been on the front lines of the evolution of the state's breeding program. Thorne returns to the New York sale with a five-horse consignment in 2019. "I was just really fortunate enough to breed a horse and raise him and...