OZONE PARK, N.Y. – In the last seven runnings of the Champagne Stakes, trainer Chad Brown has four wins and two seconds. In the seven runnings of the Champagne previous to that, trainer Todd Pletcher had four wins and one second. Naturally, Brown and Pletcher will be front and center for Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne at Aqueduct when Brown sends out General Partner and Pletcher will counter with Fierceness in a field of eight 2-year-olds looking to earn a fees-paid berth into the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 3 at Santa Anita. Brown has won the last two Champagnes with Blazing Sevens and Jack Christopher. He won it in 2018 with Complexity and 2016 with Practical Joke. In 2017, the Brown-trained Good Magic finished second in the Champagne, then won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. In stature, Brown likens General Partner to Complexity, who won his debut and then the Champagne before finishing 10th in the Juvenile. :: Get Belmont at the Big A Clocker Reports from Mike Welsch and the Clocker Team. Available every race day. “He reminds me a lot of the horse Complexity, not from a pedigree standpoint, but he’s made like him – he’s a big, strong, solid, fast horse that can carry it,” Brown said. While Complexity won at first asking, General Partner finished fourth in his debut on July 22 before bouncing back with a four-length, front-running score going seven furlongs on Sept. 2. “His first race he was a couple of works short. I was thinking when I put the saddle on him he was still a little heavy,” Brown said. “Second race he ran like he trained all along.” General Partner, a son of Speightstown owned by Seth Klarman, will break from post 4 under Manny Franco. From 2004-14, Pletcher won the Champagne six times. Uncle Mo [2010] and Shanghai Bobby [2012] would go on to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and be crowned 2-year-old male champion. Fierceness, a son of City Light, drew comparisons to Uncle Mo when he won his maiden by 11 1/4 lengths the day before this year’s Travers. In 2010, Uncle Mo won his debut by 14 1/4 lengths on Travers Day. Fierceness won his race over a sealed, muddy track – the type of surface that could be in play Saturday – but Pletcher said he would welcome a dry, fast track. “Obviously, he won’t be inconvenienced by an off track, but he had trained very well on fast tracks leading up to his debut,” Pletcher said. “We won’t worry if it does rain, but I don’t think the wet track was why he ran so well.” Pletcher said he wasn’t overly surprised by the debut performance of Fierceness, a son of City of Light owned by Mike Repole. “I don’t think you ever really anticipate one’s going to run that well first time out,” Pletcher said. “At the same time, we weren’t shocked. We’d seen him breeze awfully well leading into that.” Fierceness breaks from post 6 under Irad Ortiz Jr. Timberlake, a 9 1/4-length winner at Ellis Park in his second start, finished second as the favorite in the Grade 1 Hopeful. “He got away a step slow and then got himself in a bad spot,” trainer Brad Cox said. “He needed to relax back off the pace but he kind of took off and ran up into a tight spot. With what occurred from the three-quarter pole to the half-mile pole it took away from his finish without a doubt.” Cox is taking the blinkers off Timberlake, who was cross-entered in Saturday’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland but is going to run in New York. Florent Geroux rides from post 3. Cox also entered Air Cav, a debut winner going 5 1/2 furlongs at Horseshoe Indianapolis on Aug. 30. Gold Sweep, who won the Tremont Stakes at Belmont in June, will try to bounce back from a sixth-place finish in the Grade 1 Hopeful. Trainer Steve Asmussen is adding blinkers to his equipment on Saturday. El Grande O, winner of the Bertram F. Bongard Stakes for New York-breds over a sloppy track on Sept. 24, is wheeling back in 13 days for Linda Rice. Dancing Groom won a one-mile, off-the-turf maiden race at Saratoga on Aug. 19. Sweet Soddy J, a stakes winner at Timonium, completes the field. ◗ Nutella Fella, the 54-1 winner of the Grade 1 Hopeful, was not entered in the Champagne due to a bruised left hind foot, trainer Gary Contessa said. The bruise was noticed after the horse blew out over Saratoga’s Oklahoma training track Tuesday. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.