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Wicked Style runs away with Breeders' Futurity Ashbrook Farm's WICKED STYLE (Macho Uno) remained unbeaten and established himself as a top contender for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) with a wire-to-wire victory in Saturday's $560,000 Breeders' Futurity (G1) at Keeneland. Now three-for-three, the Arlington-Washington Futurity (G3) hero received a crafty ride from Robby Albarado, who managed to save ground into the first turn from post 12 before guiding Wicked Style to the rail for the run down the backstretch. Runner-up Slew's Tiznow (Tiznow) made a brief run at the winner on the far turn and into the stretch, but Wicked Style shrugged off his challenger and drew clear to a convincing 3 1/4-length score. "He ran huge. This is a nice horse," Albarado said. "Most everybody takes back here, but with this colt I knew I had a chance to do it (go for the lead). If I had a better post, I could have settled him behind horses, but today it was either go or get hung wide." Dismissed at 11-1, the Rusty Arnold-trained colt established moderate early splits in :24, :49 3/5 and 1:14 3/5 before completing 1 1/16 miles over the Polytrack in 1:45 1/5, and the chestnut paid $24.20, $10.80 and $6.40. Slew's Tiznow, who tracked the winner in second most of the way, narrowly held his position at 4-1 and returned $6.20 and $4.60. Old Man Buck (Hold That Tiger) rallied from off the pace for third, a neck back of the runner-up at 24-1, and generated a payoff of $13.20. It was another 2 1/4 lengths back to Adriano (A.P. Indy) in the well strung-out field. The exacta totaled $170.80, the trifecta $3,455.60, and the 12-6-9-8 superfecta $25,851. Tend (Dynaformer) came next in fifth and was followed by 2-1 favorite The Roundhouse (Fusaichi Pegasus), Fidelio (Awesome Again), Briarwood Circle (Smart Strike), Ready Set (Touch Gold), Referee (Distorted Humor) and Mikimoto's Mojo (Hold That Tiger). The race was marred by the breakdown of Gold Train (Gold Case), who was pulled up and vanned off, but had to be euthanized later due to the severity of his injuries. Bred in Florida by Adena Springs, Wicked Style passed through the sales ring twice last year, selling for $55,000 as an OBS January yearling and $43,000 at the OBS August sale, before realizing $75,000 at the OBS April two-year-olds in training sale. He hails from the stakes-placed Deviletta (Trempolino) and has an unnamed yearling half-sister by Red Bullet and a weanling full sister. The juvenile's third dam is Polonia (Danzig), heroine of the 1987 Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp (Fr-G1), and his fifth dam is Delta (*Nasrullah), Broodmare of the Year in 1968. Wicked Style opened his racing career with a 1 1/2-length score over maiden special weight rivals at Arlington Park before registering a head decision in the aforementioned Arlington-Washington Futurity. All three starts have come over Polytrack, so Wicked Style will make his dirt debut in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile on October 27. "He's never been on dirt since I've had him," Arnold said. "It's just a question of where I've been stabled (at Keeneland), but I don't think the dirt will be a problem."
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