Yaupon Stays Undefeated in G3 Chick Lang

Yaupon (3c Uncle Mo x Modification, by Vindication) stayed undefeated and completed a quickfire stakes double for his sire on Thursday in the Grade III Chick Lang Stakes.

Loading into the gate just minutes after No Mo’ Spending won a stakes at Belmont, Yaupon brushed off a bump at the gate and immediately took the lead in the six furlong race when the gates sprung open. Attended closely early on, by the stretch the race was all over as John Velazquez gave him an easy hand ride to extend the lead to four lengths in the end for William and Corinne Heilgbrodt. The speedy colt added another feather to his cap when tying the stakes record by stopping the clock in 1:09.10.

“When he got to the quarter pole, he gave me another gear,” said jockey John Velazquez. “It's a great feeling when they make you work a little bit the first part, but in the last part of the race they go on."

Trained by Steve Asmussen, it was the fourth straight victory in four starts for the Grade II winning Yaupon whose only victory by less than two lengths came in his debut. The colt was winning his second straight graded stakes with a victory in the Grade II Amsterdam last out.

Bred by Betz, Lamantia, CoCo Equine, Magers and Burns, Yaupon was a $350,000 yearling purchase at Keeneland September in 2020 by Hoby and Layne Kight, who sold him as a 2-year-old. He is one of two stakes winners from three runners by Uncle Mo out of Vindication mares.

Yaupon is one of two stakes horses out of Vindication’s Grade I-placed Modification alongside Group II-placed Sawyer’s Hill. The mare is a half-sister to three stakes winners with another one of her half-sisters producing Grade III winner Sky Mom. The mare is out of stakes winning Swift Alliance, who herself is a half-sister to two stakes winners.

Modification has had a big few months with Coolmore stallions after her yearling filly by American Pharoah sold at this year’s Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $1.2 million.

Uncle Mo is having another outstanding yearling on the track with 19 stakes winners and 13 graded stakes winners to his name to put him first among all North American sires by graded stakes winners and graded stakes horses.