Uncle Mo receives lofty 128-pound impost in Experimental Free Handicap

Uncle Mo stamped himself as the early Derby favorite following his Breeders’ Cup tour de force (©Breeders’ Cup Ltd.)

Unbeaten UNCLE MO (Indian Charlie), last year’s champion two-year-old male
and a convincing winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1), received the highweight assignment of 128 pounds on the 2010 Experimental Free Handicap, released
Thursday by The Jockey Club. It is the highest assignment since Horse of the
Year Favorite Trick received 128 pounds in 1997.

The filly division is headed by last year’s champion two-year-old filly and
undefeated Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) heroine AWESOME FEATHER (Awesome
of Course), at 123 pounds.

The Experimental Free Handicap, published annually by The Jockey Club since
1935, is a weight-based assessment of the previous year’s leading two-year-olds,
with the weights compiled for a hypothetical race at 1 1/16 miles on dirt. This
year’s weighting committee of racing secretaries was composed of Ben Huffman of
Churchill Downs, P.J. Campo of the New York Racing Association and Thomas S.
Robbins of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club.

The committee weighted a total of 99 males and 92 fillies. Eligible for
weighting were all two-year-olds of 2010 that finished among the top four in
graded or listed stakes races run in the continental United States. Listed
stakes in 2010 were those with a value of $75,000 or more available to all
starters, and no restrictions other than age or sex.

To Honor and Serve follows Uncle Mo on the Experimental Free Handicap (Jessie Holmes/EquiSport Photos)

Uncle Mo is weighted five pounds higher than TO HONOR AND SERVE
(Bernardini), a winner of three of his four starts in 2010, including the Remsen
S. (G2) and Nashua S. (G2). He earned $264,640 for owner Live Oak Plantation.

Hopeful (G1) winner and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile runner-up BOYS AT TOSCONOVA
(Officer) is next on the scale at 122 pounds. At 121 pounds are COMMA TO THE TOP
(Bwana Charlie) and PLUCK (More Than Ready). Comma to the Top won six of his 10
starts in 2010, including the CashCall Futurity (G1), Generous S. (G3) and Real
Quiet S., and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G2) hero Pluck captured three of his
five starts last year.

In the filly division, the 123 pounds assigned to Awesome Feather is the
standard impost for top Experimental fillies and equivalent to the assignment on
last year’s co-highweights, Blind Luck (Pollard’s Vision) and She Be Wild.

Bred in Florida by previous owner Jacks or Better Farm Inc., Awesome
Feather’s six victories in 2010 came by a combined 25 1/2 lengths. In addition
to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, she won the J J’sdream S. and all three
divisions of the Florida Stallion S. series — the My Dear Girl, Susan’s Girl and
Desert Vixen. She earned $1,495,746, and sold for $2.3 million following the
Breeders’ Cup.