Uncle Jake Soars to Maiden Victory at Laurel

This column highlights the performances of maidens who have made no more than five starts and who either sold for more than $500,000 at public auction, have siblings that are grade/group winners, or have dams that are grade/group winners. BloodHorse research shows maiden winners, in particular, who meet these criteria are more likely to go on to be graded stakes winners. 

Laurel Park 

The rollercoaster of a weekend for champion sire Uncle Mo   began with a glittering performance from his son, the budding 3-year-old Uncle Jake , in a 9 1/2-length romp in a maiden special weight March 10 at Laurel Park.

Following Uncle Jake's impressive win, the sire was dealt a disappointing blow Sunday when his colt Arabian Knight , one of the early favorites for the Kentucky Derby (G1), was withdrawn from Derby contention in the aftermath of an unsatisfactory morning work. Later that same day, his daughter, the Hunter Valley Farm-owed A Mo Reay , edged a top-class field of distaffers to land the $500,000 Beholder Mile (G1) at Santa Anita Park.

Uncle Jake, owned by the Avengers partnership composed of SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Robert Masterson, Stonestreet Stables, Jay Schoenfarber, Waves Edge Capital, and Catherine Donovan, joined Brittany Russell's barn in February after making his debut in Californa for trainer Bob Baffert. Another Baffert trainee owned by the same connections, the stakes-placed Fort Warren , was also transferred to Russell.

After three works over the Laurel surface, Uncle Jake, who was fourth going six furlongs first time out, was stretched out to a mile in Friday's $53,560 event. Outgunned for the early lead, the heavily-favored bay stalked in second position under jockey Jevian Toledo before overhauling the pacesetter past the half-mile pole. From there the colt increased his advantage with every stride, ahead by four lengths around the turn and by six at the top of the lane. Coasting down the stretch with no challengers in sight, he hit the wire in a final time of 1:40.03.

“We think he’s a really nice horse,” Russell said of Uncle Jake. “It’s nice to see he has the allowance (condition). Who knows. The (Frederico) Tesio (Stakes)? I think he wants to go all day. That’s also a big ask off a maiden win, so I think we’ll just stay grounded.”

A $675,000 purchase at the 2021 Keeneland September Sale, Uncle Jake is one of three winners produced by the graded stakes winning Harlan's Holiday mare Tasha's Miracle . The precocious Tasha's Miracle captured the 2007 Sorrento Stakes (G3) sprinting on the old Del Mar synthetic surface before capping her career with a victory in the one-mile Harold C. Ramser Sr. Handicap (G3T) as a 3-year-old. Tasha's Miracle hails from a black-type rich family that includes grade 1 winner Off the Tracks and recent Swale Stakes (G3) victor General Jim .