Mighty Mischief Makes the Grade in Chick Lang

BALTIMORE, MD – Mighty Mischief making his stakes debut, kept multiple stakes-winning stablemate and even-money favorite Jaxon Traveler at bay through the stretch to post a front-running triumph in Saturday’s $200,000 Chick Lang Stakes (G3) at Pimlico Race Course.

Winning jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. said “This is a nice horse. We have a lot of confidence in him. We’ve always loved this horse from Day 1. He’s improved a lot. They let me walk the first quarter. I was really happy. He was really comfortable. The first quarter, when they let me walk in 23 [seconds], I knew I was going slow. I knew he was going to accelerate for home, and I just waited for company to come back to me. And when they came close to me, I had a lot left.”

Jaxon Traveler, Hemp, and Willy Boi completed the order.

Winning trainer Steve Asmussen: “The only thing that could have been better is a dead heat. I think they’re both very quality horses. The race might have been a little quick back for Jaxon Traveler. He didn’t have as much speed as he normally does, and the race got away from him a little bit from the half-mile to the three-eighths.”

(Pre-race instructions?) “I think that’s covered when you’ve got Ricardo [Santana Jr.] and Irad [Ortiz Jr.]. At this level, this is as good as it gets. I think where they drew made the difference in the outcome of the race.”

“The significance of this is that it’s Corinne Heiligbrodt’s mare and they’re the breeder of this one as well. Not only for them to breed another Chick Lang winner, and I’m sure this is their third Chick Lang winner.”

“Jaxon Traveler has been a very versatile horse. He’s traveled, and being a Maryland-bred, [there are] Mid-Atlantic opportunities for him. Mighty Mischief, this being his first stakes try, we’ll see how he comes out of it and what we need to do with him next.

This is the first graded stakes win for Mighty Mischief. The 3-year-old son of Into Mischief improved his record to 4-3-1-0 and has earned $255,200 for owners L. William and Corinne Heiligbrodt.

Mighty Mischief returned $5.60 to win, $2.80 to place, and $2.40 to show.