These weekend winners have the fastest speed figures of 2021

On a weekend dominated by graded stakes races to close out the Saratoga and Del Mar meets, Baby Yoda and Flightline generated plenty of buzz in allowance races – and with good reason.

The two 3-year-olds earned the fastest Beyer Speed Figures of the year, both coming in at 114.

At Saratoga Saturday, Baby Yoda, trained by Bill Mott, pressed fractions of 21.54 and 44.08 seconds on his way to winning by 4 1/4 lengths. The time for the 6 1/2-furlong race was 1:14.33, only 0.59 seconds outside the track record. The 3-year-old gelded son of Prospective also earned a 105 Brisnet Speed Rating and a 126 TimeformUS Speed Figure for his effort.

On Sunday, Flightline dazzled in his second start for John Sadler, with the 3-year-old Tapit colt winning a six-furlong Del Mar allowance race by 12 3/4 lengths, clocked at 1:08.05.

The only other runner with a Beyer Speed Figure above 100 was Olympiad, a 3-year-old Speightstown colt also trained by Mott who was second to Baby Yoda in that Saratoga allowance, earning a 105 Beyer Speed Figure.

A 4 1/2-length win by 2-year-old Corniche in a maiden special weight at Del Mar on Saturday earned the Bob Baffert trainee a Beyer Speed Figure of 98, the highest this year for 2-year-olds.

Two other 2-year-olds earned 90 Beyer Speed Figures this weekend: Classic Causeway, who won his debut with a 6 1/2-length win Saturday at Saratoga for Brian Lynch, and Echo Zulu, who went 2-for-2 for Steve Asmussen with a four-length win at the Spa on Sunday.