Yankee Fourtune Tops Commonwealth Turf

Speedy gelding Yankee Fourtune will seek his fifth consecutive victory Nov. 13 at Churchill Downs when he faces a dozen rivals in the $100,000 Commonwealth Turf (gr. IIIT) for 3-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles.

The son of Yankee Gentleman has been unbeatable since scoring a maiden claimer at Belmont Park in July in what was his turf debut and second start overall. A pair of allowance wins at Saratoga followed and so did a victory in his stakes debut—the grade III Hawthorne Derby on Oct. 9 when he scored by 2 1/4 lengths as the even-money choice.

Yankee Fourtune will likely be the favorite again in the Commonwealth Turf. Kiaran McLaughlin trains the gray/roan for Harvey Clark and Andrew Albstein. He was a $37,000 purchase at the Keeneland September 2008 yearling sale.

All of Yankee Fourtune’s triumphs have been while racing on or near the front and all have been under Victor Santiago, who will retain the mount once again. An earner of $168,980, he will break from post 11 while carrying co-top weight of 123 pounds.