Yakteen and Kangaroo Court eye bigger prize after Del Mar rout
Make no mistake, Kangaroo Court needs to be taken seriously after his stunning 14 ¼-length win at Del Mar on Saturday (US Pacific Time).
Santa Anita-based trainer Tim Yakteen was not surprised by the ease of the two-year-old gelding’s triumph in the maiden event over 5 ½ furlongs.
As a result, he is now looking towards the USD $125,000 I’m Smokin Stakes over six furlongs on September 9 (PT).
Yakteen is a proven mentor when it comes to developing two-year-olds.
In 2010, he trained the California bred two-year-old Bench Points to a championship year.
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He is confident Kangaroo Court can follow a similar path, starting with a strong performance in the two-year-old Cal-Bred Stakes feature in just over two weeks.
“The Cal-Bred program is a great program. I’ve had several two-year-old Cal-bred champions, and hopefully we can follow a similar route,” he told horsebetting.com.au.
“We’ll go for the Cal-Bred Stakes at the end of the meet. It’s a nice program they’ve got for the two-year-olds.
“And then we can determine whether we want to migrate into open company or not.”
Despite the massive margin of his win on Saturday, Yakteen knew his young sprinter was ready to put on a performance like that.
“The horse was doing great. He ran tremendous in his first outing (second in a maiden at Del Mar on July 23) and we had a good draw (10),” he said.
“It’s always nice when this materialises, and they run the way they’ve trained.”
Fellow California trainer Carla Gaines was also delighted with Gillian Elizabeth’s comfortable 5 ¼-length win in a three-year-old and upwards fillies and mares mile race at Del Mar on Saturday.
“It was a beautiful trip. We’ll just have to see (what’s next). She’s kind of been building herself up in class for that next step,” she said when asked about her three-year-old filly.