Champion Jackie's Warrior rolls in the True North

Elmont, N.Y.

When Jackie's Warrior arrived in the paddock before Friday’s Grade 2, $300,000 True North Stakes, he looked a little too relaxed. His head was bowed, and he just went about his business of walking toward the end of the saddling area.

Ho-hum.

Then America’s reigning champion male sprinter turned around and saw some of the other horses who he was about to race. That was when he perked right up, which was bad news for those rivals he was about to humiliate.

“He exudes confidence,” his trainer Steve Asmussen said. “He knows why he’s here and what he’s doing. Enjoys it. Loved him in the post parade. He walked as far as they wanted. As soon as they started off, he just gave it a little play. Like let’s do this.”

It was just another day at the track for Jackie’s Warrior (1-4), who ran his record as a 4-year-old to 3-for-3 after he eased – literally eased – to a five-length victory against five overmatched older horses in the 6 1/2-furlong dash at Belmont Park.

“I let him do his thing, and he’s just unbelievable,” winning jockey Joel Rosario said. “He’s very smart, and he is just fast.”

The clock bore out that assessment. Carrying a big, loose lead turning wide into the stretch on a relaxed run home, the 4-year-old Maclean’s Music colt was clocked at 1:15.09, just 0.63 seconds off the track record that has stood for 18 years.

Just think if he had not been coasting at the end.

“He’s a special horse,” said Irad Ortiz Jr., who rode Sound Money (5-1) to a virtually uncontested, second-place finish. “My horse ran great, made up some ground on him and kept trying and kept trying. But (Jackie’s Warrior) never came back. He’s a nice horse.”

It was not a completely perfect performance. Jackie’s Warrior was bumped from behind at the start by Baby Yoda (8-1). He actually was third out of the gate behind War Tocsin (69-1) and Mr Phil (12-1). But within the first 200 yards, he took a lead that he never gave up.

“He took a little bit of time to get going,” Rosario said. “But then he just did his thing after that.”

That thing was clocked at 22.83 seconds after the first quarter-mile, when Jackie’s Warrior led Mr Phil by a head. After a half-mile in 45.52, the lead was two lengths. Rosario was gearing down when the six furlongs were completed in 1:08.68.

After Jackie’s Warrior and Sound Money, War Tocsin was another seven lengths behind in third followed in order by Baby Yoda, Mr Phil and Night Time (25-1).

It was a sight to behold for Asmussen. Especially the way Jackie’s Warrior finished.

“The separation he gets without being asked is beautiful,” Asmussen said. “He’s so rhythmic watching him run. He’s a horse I love to watch up the stretch from about the eighth pole or whatever because of his action, the way he moves.”

Now 13: 11-1-0 in one-turn races, Jackie’s Warrior will spend his summer at Saratoga, where Asmussen has targeted the six-furlong Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap (G1) on July 30 and the seven-furlong Forego (G1) on Aug. 27 to try and add to a résumé that already includes three Grade 1 victories and $2,474,664 in earnings.

All that will be a buildup to the six-furlong Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 5 at Keeneland, where the colt bought by Kirk and Judy Robison for only $95,000 as a yearling will try to make amends for a career-worst, six-place finish last fall at Del Mar.

“I think it’s as simple as he’s very fast,” Asmussen said. “It’s a race, and he’s a very fast horse. He’s got a tremendous amount of poise and confidence about himself.”