Gun Pilot Eyes Another Graded Stakes Win in True North

Three Chimneys Farm's homebred Gun Pilot  will look for his second straight graded stakes win when he takes on six rivals in the $350,000 True North Stakes (G2) at Saratoga Race Course June 8, the third day of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival.

Breaking from post 5, the 4-year-old son of Gun Runner   will be ridden by Cristian Torres, as he was when winning the Churchill Downs Stakes (G1) on the Kentucky Derby (G1) undercard May 4, his first graded stakes win. Established as the even-money morning-line favorite and trained by Steve Asmussen, who also trained his sire, the bay colt has earned $975,575 from a 5-3-0 race record in 11 starts and looms the main threat. 

With scattered rain forecast for Saratoga beginning June 6 and continuing through the weekend, Gun Pilot may face an off track, which he handled easily in an allowance optional claiming race at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots in January. 

Breaking immediately to the outside of Gun Pilot is Gun It , who will be ridden by Jose Ortiz. Claimed in April 2023 by Linda Rice from Asmussen, the gray or roan gelding returns to a graded stakes race for the just the second time since 2020 in the 6 1/2-furlong True North. A veteran of 38 races, he's owned by Winning Move Stable and was bred in Kentucky by Three Chimneys Farm and Besilu Stables. He sold for $2.6 million at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale to Whisper Hill Farm. 

New York-bred Rotknee  is proven at the distance and off tracks. One of several with an affinity for setting the pace, he's got two wins and two seconds on wet surfaces and will try graded stakes company for the third time. Out of the Speightstown mare In Spite of Mama, he's a half brother to three six-figure earners, including the graded stakes winner My Mane Squeeze . Bred and owned by William Butler and trained by Mike Maker, he'll be ridden by Manuel Franco. 

Wearing the red and white silks of Klaravich Stables, Accretive  is thrice graded stakes placed and seeks his first win in graded company. Following an eighth-place finish in the Fred W. Hooper Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream Park in January, the 5-year-old dropped to allowance optional claimers, twice finishing second at Aqueduct Racetrack. Trainer Chad Brown steps him up again here, and breaking from post 4, he'll be ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr.

The popular 6-year-old gelding Baby Yoda  comes to the True North off a neck win in an allowance optional claimer at the Belmont at the Big A meet May 3. He returns to graded stakes company for the first time since October 2022, when he ran second by 1 3/4 lengths for trainer Bill Mott and owner Wachtel Stable, Gary Barber, Pantofel Stable, and Jerold L. Zaro. Bred in Florida by Kathleen Amaya, Alexandro Centofanti, and Raffaele Centofanti, he'll be ridden by Eric Cancel. 

Also contesting the True North will be Ninetyprcentmaddie  and Twenty Four Mamba . The fourth of 14 races Saturday, the True North is scheduled to go off at 12:31 p.m. ET