Trainer Kenny McPeek has a busy Saturday coming up at Belmont at the Big A led by Universe and Stickupwithoutagun in the Grade 1 $500,000 Champagne, a one-turn mile for juveniles.<\/p>\n
The Champagne, slated as Race 7 on the 12-race card, is a \u201cWin and You\u2019re In\u201d qualifying event for the Breeders\u2019 Cup Juvenile on Oct. 31 at Del Mar and also offers 10-5-3-2-1 qualifying points to the top-five finishers towards the Kentucky Derby in May at Churchill Downs.<\/p>\n
Four G Racing, Gregg Day and Steven Crain\u2019s Universe enters from a debut graduation sprinting seven furlongs on Aug. 30 at Saratoga Race Course. There, the Global Campaign bay hit the gate at the break, and recovered to travel two lengths back in midpack before cruising to a 4 1\/2-length score over $1.7 million yearling purchase Dragones.<\/p>\n
Universe breezed five furlongs in 1:01.02 on Sept. 27 over the Belmont Park dirt training track in preparation of the Champagne.<\/p>\n
\u201cUniverse had been training at Saratoga, and I sent him down to Belmont for his work to run this weekend,\u201d McPeek said. \u201cHe is a horse that looks the part. I think he was quite a bit overlooked in that first race, but the way he finished up and galloped out was impressive. We\u2019ve had a good start with young horses this year and he\u2019s kind of leading the pack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harold Lerner, AWC Stables and Nehoc Stables\u2019 New York-bred Stickupwithoutagun graduated second out sprinting six furlongs versus fellow state-breds on August 29 at the Spa. The McKinzie bay debuted just two weeks earlier when running a distant sixth going 1 1\/16 miles on turf on August 15 there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always knew he was a dirt horse,\u201d McPeek said. \u201cWe needed a longer race. When a longer race didn\u2019t go, we went into a dirt sprint, and he showed up pretty sharp that day. I think he really wants a mile.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Bred in the Empire State by Sequel Thoroughbreds and Lakland Farm, Stickupwithoutagun has options in the New York-bred stakes program going forward, including the $200,000 Sleepy Hollow on Oct. 25.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he fits with open company remains to be seen, if he does, that\u2019s great, but if not, he\u2019ll come back in the Sleepy Hollow,\u201d McPeek said.<\/p>\n
The same connections have New York-bred Rina\u2019s Revenge in Saturday\u2019s Grade 1, $400,000 Frizette, a one-turn mile for 2-year-old fillies, in Race 6. The Yaupon dark bay closed from 7th-of-9 to win her six-furlong state-bred debut by 4 3\/4 lengths on August 28 at the Spa.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was impressive,\u201d McPeek said. \u201cIf she handles open company, that is great. I think she will relish the mile. She is definitely going to come from off the pace.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Frizette is a part of the Breeders’ Cup “Dirt Dozen” series for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar. The nominated winner of the Frizette will receive a credit of $30,000 toward entry fees, with the second and third places receiving credits of $15,000 and $7,500, respectively.<\/p>\n
The Frizette also offers qualifying points to the top-five finishers on a 10-5-3-2-1 scale towards the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs.<\/p>\n
McPeek indicated Miss Call will scratch from Saturday\u2019s Grade 2, $200,000 Miss Grillo in favor of other options.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported by Paulick Report<\/a> on Oct 2, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Paulick Report as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trainer Kenny McPeek has a busy Saturday coming up at Belmont at the Big A led by Universe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9464,16199,75556,3004,8091,101,56,54,55,23275],"class_list":{"0":"post-176083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-churchill-downs","9":"tag-kentucky-derby","10":"tag-qualifying-event","11":"tag-racing","12":"tag-saratoga-race-course","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom","17":"tag-universe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}