Jackie's Warrior Tops Field in Hopeful

Seven promising 2-year-olds tackle the first grade 1 assignment of their young careers in the $250,000 Runhappy Hopeful Stakes (G1) Sept. 7 at Saratoga Race Course.

The historic race, a springboard to glory for many future champions, is filled with promise but, in a year where early season options were compromised by the COVID-19 pandemic, only limited performance.

The exception in the Hopeful field is Jackie's Warrior, who won the Saratoga Special Stakes Presented by Miller Lite (G2) Aug. 7 and looks to become the first youngster to land the Special/Hopeful double since City Zip in 2000. City Zip won the Hopeful in a dead heat with Yonaguska.

"It's good timing back, and he's had a race over the track," said Scott Blasi, an assistant to Jackie's Warrior's trainer, Steve Asmussen. "He's done everything right for us in the mornings, and we're looking forward to running him. Seven-eighths of a mile is not going to be an issue for him."

Jackie's Warrior, by MacLean's Music  out of the A. P. Five Hundred mare Unicorn Girl, won at first asking June 19 at Churchill Downs.

Mutasaabeq, carrying the Shadwell Stable colors, enters the Hopeful off a maiden win on the course Aug. 8. Trained by Todd Pletcher, the Into Mischief  colt scored by 4 1/2 lengths in his debut despite getting off a step slow while going 5 1/2 furlongs.

Pletcher noted the seven-furlong Hopeful is a step up in class as well as distance for the colt, a $425,000 buy from the 2018 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.

"Hopefully he jumps a little better second time out, but we'll play it by ear," Pletcher said. "I liked the way he finished the other day, so seven-eighths should be within his range."

Chad Brown will saddle another recent Saratoga winner, Klaravich Stables' Reinvestment Risk. From the first crop of Upstart , the colt won by 7 3/4 lengths at first asking Aug. 1.

The others are Fearless Fly, Nutsie, and Ampersand, all recent first-time maiden winners, and Papetu, a Dialed In colt who won two races at Gulfstream Park before finishing sixth in the Saratoga Special.

The Hopeful, which dates to 1904, has produced plenty of winners who went on to spectacular careers. The roster includes Nashua, Native Dancer, Hail to Reason, Secretariat, Affirmed, Summer Squall, Gulch, and Chief's Crown.