American Pharoah: Yakteen has faith in 'tactical' McKinzie Street

Trainer Tim Yakteen has bagged six Grade 1 wins in his career, but never Santa Anita’s Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes, one of the country’s top races for 2-year-olds. He may just have the horse to do it this year.

On Saturday, Yakteen will saddle 9-5 morning line favorite McKinzie Street in the American Pharoah going 1 1/16 miles on dirt. The colt by McKinzie, most recently second in the Del Mar Futurity (G1) going seven furlongs, “has trained well since we’ve had him,” Yakteen said Friday morning.

At the OBS April sale earlier this year, McKinzie Street was purchased for $290,000 by owners Pierre Amestoy, Leslie Amestoy and Roger Beasley. It’s the same group that owned the most accomplished dirt horse trained and developed by Yakteen, 2023 Santa Anita Derby (G1) winner Practical Move.

Following a debut win going 5 1/2 furlongs at Del Mar in July, McKinzie Street finished 1 3/4 length behind winner Gaming in the Del Mar Futurity. As the chart notes, McKinzie Street did have a touch of trouble that day. About the half mile pole, while racing keenly behind the leaders, he “suffered a mild shuffle” and lost a couple of positions. He then regained his best stride and rallied determinedly to beat all but one to the wire.

“It was a bit of a troubled trip that day. To have a horse that can take a little adversity in just his second start and not get discouraged, that always gives you hope,” Yakteen said. “Usually you see that from horses that end up developing into nice horses. Hopefully that’s what we’ve got.”

McKinzie Street will break from the rail in a field of seven set for the American Pharoah, which is a win and you're in for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Nov. 1 at Del Mar. Jockey Kazushi Kimura, who has been aboard for both of McKinzie Street’s starts, will again be in the irons.

Yakteen didn’t sound overly concerned with the rail draw. Nor the stretch-out to two turns.

“Our horse is pretty tactical. He’ll be up near the pace,” Yakteen said. “We’ll just have to see where exactly depending on how the pace sets up.”

McKinzie Street’s chief rivals are all trained by Bob Baffert, who has won a record 12 American Pharoah’s including the last six.

Getaway Car, the 2-1 second choice, set a contested pace in the Futurity and weakened in the stretch to finish fourth. He will have blinkers off after wearing them in all three previous starts. Citizen Bull, the 5-2 third choice, was bet down to the favorite’s role in the Futurity and finished third. Baffert’s final entrant is Emerald Bay (6-1). On Aug. 24 at Del Mar, the Nyquist colt was stretched out to a mile for his second start and promptly scored by three lengths.