Awesome Czech looks to defend her title in the $200K Yaddo

Barry Schwartz’s homebred Awesome Czech seeks a title defense in Sunday’s $200,000 Yaddo, a 1 1/16-mile Mellon turf test for state-bred fillies and mares 3-years-old and up, at Saratoga Race Course.

Trained by Horacio De Paz, the 5-year-old Mendelssohn bay won last year’s Yaddo during a highly effective 7-3-2-2 campaign that included an additional stakes score in the state-bred Ticonderoga in October at Belmont at the Big A. 

Awesome Czech made her seasonal debut with a third in a Tapeta handicap in January at Gulfstream Park, returning about five months later to finish off the board as the favorite in the Grade 3 Gallorette in May at Laurel Park. She was a last-out fourth in the one-mile restricted Listed De La Rose on July 17 here, beaten 1 3/4 lengths by Grade 1 winner And One More Time, who exited to win the local Grade 2 Ballston Spa presented by STIHL. 

“Her last race was an honest effort. I don’t think the one mile distance is necessarily to her liking,” De Paz said. “She was trying there at the end and didn’t get beat much by some nice mares in that race. It was encouraging to see that she wanted to compete against that kind of group.”

Awesome Czech boasts an overall record of 22-6-4-4 and is three-time stakes-placed in open company. She boasts a field-best turf Beyer Speed Figure of 92 from her Ticonderoga score. 

“She’s doing very well,” said De Paz of the mare who is 4-for-6 over the Spa turf. “She came out of her last race in good order. She’s had some good works and she looks like she is sitting on a good race.”

Awesome Czech [post 9, Ricardo Santana, Jr.] is out of the winning Awesome Again mare Marvelous Martina. The U.S. Open Championships, currently underway in Queens, was won multiple times by Martina Navratilova, the Czech-American tennis great. 

“Awesome Czech has just continued to improve and she always shows up,” De Paz said. “I’m looking forward to getting her back in a New York-bred race. It could be kind of a confidence booster that we try to build from for the fall and rest of the year.” 

Bona Venture Stables’s Sail With the Wind [post 8, Junior Alvarado] is 2-for-2 this year and has won her last three races. Trained by Jeremiah Englehart, the 6-year-old Astern bay enters from a dead-heat for victory with the Chad Brown-trained Hand Over Heart in a 1 1/16-mile open allowance on August 8 here. 

“I was actually pretty happy with the dead-head result, because watching it live, I thought we had won, but then the crowd seemed surprised during the replay and I thought we got a bad beat,” Englehart said. “Then I came to find out it was a dead heat and I was pleased with that.”

Sail With the Wind is set for her stakes debut in her 17th career start.

“I’m excited to see where she stacks up against stakes company,” Englehart said. “I think she’s gotten to the point now where she’s just very competitive and enjoys what she’s doing. The results have shown.”

Sail With the Wind previously captured a pair of state-bred allowance level tilts in November and June at the Big A, the latter by 4 3/4 lengths over next-out winner Nonna Lynne which earned a career-best 88 Beyer. 

“This time she is coming back in three weeks, which is a little quick for me, but she is doing well,” Englehart said. “She has kind of always given me the impression that she’s going to run well every time.” 

Bred by Dixie Farm, Sail With the Wind is out of the winning Lemon Drop Kid mare Kats Girl Cala, a half-sister to Grade 1-placed Associate. 

DiRico Racing and Breeding’s Cosmic Candy Girl [post 6, Chris Elliott] is a sophomore taking on elders for trainer Jim Ryerson. The Twirling Candy bay wired the local 1 1/16-mile Suzie O’Cain by 3 1/2 lengths over fellow 3-year-old fillies on July 23. She showed pacesetting tactics for the first time in her eighth career start and earned a career-best 80 Beyer.

“Hopefully she doesn’t have to be on the lead,” Ryerson said. “That just so happened to be the way it went, but I don’t think she has to be on the lead. I’m hoping her race was indicative of how well she’s done since she’s come up here to Saratoga.” 

Cosmic Candy Girl, off at 26-1 in the O’Cain, was twice third and then fourth versus allowance elders at Aqueduct Racetrack to begin her year. Last year, she made four starts, never finishing worse than a one-length second, including a third-out maiden win ahead of a head defeat in the state-bred Key Cents at the Big A. 

“Hopefully we’ll see more of what we are hoping for throughout the rest of the summer and fall,” said Ryerson. “A nice well bred filly. Some of these older [mares] are hard knockers.” 

Bred by 30 Year Farm, Cosmic Candy Girl, a $130,000 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale purchase, is out of the winning Galileo mare Evening Primrose. Her fourth dam is Reine-de-Course mare Weekend Surprise, who produced Hall of Famer A.P. Indy. Her third dam, Weekend Storm, produced multiple Grade 1-winning $3 million earner Court Vision, who captured the 2011 Breeders' Cup Mile.

Robert Rosenthal and Bradford Bernstein’s homebred Bernietakescharge [post 3, Kendrick Carmouche] enters from a 1 3/4-length wiring of the nine-furlong state-bred Critical Eye over the main track on June 3 here. Trained by Domenick Schettino, the multiple stakes-winner has made just 2-of-23 starts on turf, most recently in May 2024, and seeks her first win on the surface.

The 5-year-old Take Charge Indy dark bay, out of the stakes-winning Freud mare Berning Rose, is a half-sister to Bernieandtherose, a New York-homebred for the same connections, who notched back-to-back state-bred scores last year in the East View and the Maddie May at the Big A. 

Hilly Fields Stables’ homebred Being Betty [post 4, Javier Castellano] also won a local state-bred stakes on June 3, taking the 1 1/16-mile Mount Vernon by a half-length over returning rival Midnight Concerto. Trained by Lisa Bartkowski, the 5-year-old Weekend Hideaway mare was a last-out eighth in the De La Rose among her 16-6-1-1 overall record. It has been a strong year for Being Betty, posting a 5-3-1-0 record including a pair of nose scores, notably in a dead-heat for the win with dual graded-winner Grayosh in an April optional claimer at Aqueduct. 

Rounding out the field are stakes-winner Spinning Colors [post 5, John Velazquez] for trainer Mark Hennig; dual stakes-placed Midnight Concerto [post 1, Manny Franco] for conditioner Ken McPeek; three-time winner Brokealltherules [post 7, Dylan Davis] for trainer Rick Dutrow, Jr.; and two-time winner Marvelous Madison [post 2, Jose Lezcano] for trainer Jorge Abreu. 

Munnings Express, Higher Force and Grace and Grit are entered for the main track-only. 

The Yaddo is slated as Race 9 on Sunday’s 10-race card. First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern. 

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