Champagne Stakes 2020 guide: Odds and analysis
Jackie’s Warrior has established himself as an early leader in the 2-year-old male division. The Maclean’s Music colt can take another step toward year-end honors and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile favoritism Saturday at Belmont Park.
The Steve Asmussen trainee Jackie’s Warrior is the 3-5 morning-line favorite for the Grade 1, $250,000 Champagne Stakes. The one-mile race is scheduled for 1:58 p.m. EDT on a Belmont card that also features the Frizette (G1), Flower Bowl (G1) and Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1).
Jackie’s Warrior looks to improve to 4-for-4 lifetime Saturday. He debuted a winner at Churchill Downs, then swept the Saratoga Special (G2) and Hopeful (G1) this summer at the Spa.
Five rivals will face Jackie’s Warrior in the 2020 Champagne, including Reinvestment Risk and Midnight Bourbon. The former was second in the Hopeful for trainer Chad Brown, while the latter comes off a second-place effort for Asmussen in Churchill’s Iroquois Stakes (G3).
The Champagne is annually one of the most prestigious events for 2-year-old males.
Count Fleet, Seattle Slew, Spectacular Bid and Easy Goer are among racing legends who made Champagne victories early triumphs in Hall of Fame careers. 2019 race winner Tiz the Law has carried on that legacy by winning three Grade 1 events this season.
Here is a look at the 2020 Champagne Stakes field:
1. Ambivalent (Doug O’Neill, John Velazquez), 15-1
2. Run Casper Run (Juan Vazquez, Jose Lezcano), 30-1
3. Civil War (Tom Albertrani, Kendrick Carmouche), 30-1
4. Jackie’s Warrior (Steve Asmussen, Joel Rosario), 3-5
5. Reinvestment Risk (Chad Brown, Irad Ortiz Jr.), 8-5
6. Midnight Bourbon (Steve Asmussen, Jose Ortiz), 6-1
TimeformUS’ pace projections show Jackie’s Warrior going to the lead under jockey Joel Rosario, with chief rivals Midnight Bourbon and Reinvestment Risk giving chase.
Champagne on TV
America’s Day at the Races, a joint production of Fox Sports and the New York Racing Association, will broadcast all 11 races on Saturday’s card live from Belmont. The program is scheduled to air Saturday on FS1 from 12-6 p.m. EDT.
TVG’s coverage Saturday will include graded stakes races at Keeneland and Monmouth Park.
Champagne reading
The Champagne could be influential when looking toward Eclipse Award honors for top 2-year-old male. Chip Gehrke has Jackie’s Warrior at No. 1 that division, with Reinvestment Risk at No. 4 and Midnight Bourbon outside the top five.
John Velazquez is aboard Doug O’Neill trainee Ambivalent in the Champagne. The Hall of Fame jockey entered this week’s action just one win shy of 2,000 for his career riding at Belmont Park.
Jackie’s Warrior is the 3-1 favorite in futures betting for the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. He has some company near the top of the board thanks to Essential Quality, winner of the Breeders’ Futurity (G1) on Oct. 3 at Keeneland.
Speaking of the Breeders’ Cup, the Champagne is one of five “Win and You’re In” qualifiers that Belmont will host this weekend. See how the fields are shaping up less than a month away from the 2020 Championships at Keeneland.
Champagne card
First post Saturday is 12:20 p.m., with full Belmont Park entries available via HRN. Carded as the fourth race, the Champagne runs as the first of five graded stakes that Belmont will feature Saturday.
Courtesy of the NTRA, here are previews for the quartet of graded stakes that will follow the Champagne on Saturday at Big Sandy:
2:30 p.m. – $250,000 Frizette Stakes (G1), FS1
Vequist proved she could dominate a Grade 1 field when she cruised to a 9 1/2-length score in her stakes debut in the Spinaway on Sept. 6 at Saratoga Race Course. She will look to show similar form Saturday against a talented field of juvenile fillies in the Frizette contested at one mile on Belmont Park's main track. Gary Barber and Adam Wachtel purchased a 75 percent share from Swilcan Stable following Vequist's runner-up debut effort July 29 at Parx when she ran a nose behind Niente. In her second start, the Butch Reid trainee was stretched out from 4½ furlongs to seven in the Spinaway.
4:14 p.m. – $250,000 Flower Bowl Stakes (G1), FS1
The top-four finishers in the Glens Falls (G2) last month at Saratoga Race Course will each vie for supremacy again in Saturday's rematch that highlights the Flower Bowl for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up going 1 1/4 miles on the inner turf. Allen Stable's Civil Union, trained by Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey, outkicked the Chad Brown trainee My Sister Nat by one length in the Glens Falls going 1 3/8 miles Sept. 5. Civil Union, a 5-year-old War Front mare, has won three in a row, starting with a 1¼-mile allowance tilt on the Belmont turf June 21 before winning the River Memories on the same track going 1 1/2 miles July 12.
4:48 p.m. – $250,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1), FS1
Juddmonte Farms' three-time graded stakes-winning multimillionaire Tacitus will look to secure his first career Grade 1 triumph in the 102nd running of the Jockey Club Gold Cup going the classic distance of 1¼ miles. Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, a three-time Jockey Club Gold Cup winner, Tacitus was third in last year's edition and was most recently second as the favorite in the Woodward (G1) on Sept. 5 at Saratoga, where he chased a slow pace tracking a half-length off Global Campaign but was unable to catch the pacesetter, who strolled home a 1¾-length winner.
5:20 p.m. – $150,000 Sands Point Stakes (G2), FS1
Trainer Chad Brown will saddle a pair of contenders led by multiple graded-stakes winner Selflessly and French-bred Tamahere as the four-time Eclipse Award-winning conditioner looks to secure his fourth win in Saturday's Sands Point, a one-mile Widener turf test. Selflessly stumbled at the start of her seasonal debut when fifth in the Wonder Again (G3) on June 20 at Belmont but returned to form last out when a nose winner of the one-mile Lake George (G3) at Saratoga on Aug. 28, when besting multiple graded-stakes winner Sweet Melania.
Champagne preview
From the NYRA Press Office…
J. Kirk and Judy Robison's Jackie's Warrior is a standout in the juvenile division with an unblemished record and will put his perfect resume on the line in Saturday's 148th running of the Grade 1, $250,000 Champagne going a one-turn mile at Belmont Park for 2-year-old colts.
The Champagne is one of four Breeders' Cup "Win and You're In" qualifying events slated for Saturday's action-packed 11-race program and offers an automatic entry towards the Breeders' Cup Juvenile on Nov. 6 at Keeneland.
Inaugurated in 1867, the Champagne has been a prominent event for young horses having seen a handful of Kentucky Derby winners score in the race during their 2-year-old season dating all the way back to Azra in 1891. Riva Ridge (1971), Foolish Pleasure (1974), Spectacular Bid (1978) as well as Triple Crown winners Count Fleet (1942) and Seattle Slew (1976) won the Champagne before becoming household names. The great Secretariat won the 1972 Champagne but was disqualified for interference with Stop the Music, who was subsequently awarded the victory. The Champagne has also been used as a steppingstone to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile with horses like Fly So Free (1990), Timber Country (1994), War Pass (2007), Uncle Mo (2010) and Shanghai Bobby (2012) notching the Champagne-Breeders' Cup Juvenile double.
Trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, Jackie's Warrior arrives at the Champagne off a 2¼-length victory in the Hopeful (G1) on Sept. 7 at Saratoga, where he registered a 95 Beyer Speed Figure – the highest number recorded by a 2-year-old this year. In his prior effort, the bay son of Maclean's Music won his stakes debut in the Saratoga Special (G2) on Aug. 7 at the Spa by three lengths after displaying stalking tactics in his debut at Churchill Downs, which he won by 2½ lengths.
Jackie's Warrior has been getting acclimated to Belmont Park, recently breezing a half-mile in 50.54 over the Belmont training track Oct. 4.
"He handles everything well," said Asmussen's Belmont Park-based assistant trainer Toby Sheets. "Just like his races are, that's how he is. He's done everything very professionally and he's very straightforward. I don't see the mile being an issue at all."
Jockey Joel Rosario, who guided Practical Joke to a 2016 Champagne win, will return to the saddle from post 4.
Asmussen also will be represented by Winchell Thoroughbreds' Midnight Bourbon, who was a recent second in the Iroquois (G3) on Sept. 5 at Churchill Downs going a one-turn mile.
"He came in on Saturday, had a little (three-furlong) blowout (in 39.22 seconds) here on Tuesday," Sheets said. "He's another well-built, big horse. He's figuring it out a little bit, but he's been doing really well."
The well-bred Midnight Bourbon is the fourth offspring out of the Malibu Moon mare Catch the Moon, whose other progeny are Grade 1 winner Girvin and graded stakes winners Pirate's Punch and Cocked and Loaded.
"Let's hope that trend continues," Sheets said.
Midnight Bourbon will be ridden by Jose Ortiz from post 6.
Hopeful runner-up Reinvestment Risk will try and turn the tables on Jackie's Warrior while attempting to give trainer Chad Brown and owner Klaravich Stables their third Champagne victory.
The son of freshman sire Upstart dazzled in his career debut with a 7¾-length victory at the Spa over next-out winner Olympiad. He recorded a 90 Beyer in his debut, a figure which he replicated in his runner-up finish to Jackie's Warrior in the Hopeful.
"He's doing super,” Brown said. “I'm looking forward to getting him out another furlong. He'll have no problem with more distance.”
Jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. has been the pilot in both of the bay colt's lifetime starts and will return to the saddle from post 5.
Reddam Racing's Ambivalent is the lone maiden in the field but boasts stakes experience on the west coast for trainer Doug O'Neill.
The dark bay son of leading second-crop sire Constitution was recently third beaten a length over the grass in the one-mile Del Mar Juvenile Turf on Sept. 7.
Following a runner-up effort on debut June 21 at Santa Anita, Ambivalent was beaten 1¼ lengths before being disqualified from third to fourth in the Best Pal (G2) on Aug. 8 at Del Mar.
Hall of Famer John Velazquez has the mount from post 1.
Rounding out the field are Run Casper Run (post 2, Jose Lezcano) and Civil War (post 3, Kendrick Carmouche).
The Champagne is slated as Race 4 on Saturday's 11-race program, which offers a first post of 12:20 p.m. EDT. America's Day at the Races will present daily television coverage of the 27-day fall meet on FOX Sports and MSG Networks. For the complete America's Day at the Races broadcast schedule, and additional programming information, visit https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/tv-schedule.