Three Technique’s greatest success during his 39-race career has come around one turn, specifically 7 furlongs or a mile. Three Technique earned a fees-paid berth into the Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) on Nov. 2 at Del Mar with a victory in the Ack Ack Stakes (G3) on Sept. 28 at Churchill Downs for trainer Jason Cook.

Three Technique ($1,177,237) became a millionaire in the 1-mile Ack Ack, his seventh lifetime victory. The 7-year-old Kentucky-bred son of Grade 1 winner Mr Speaker originally was raced by owner Bill Parcells, a two-time Super Bowl winning coach. Parcells purchased Three Technique (a football term for a defensive lineman’s positioning) for $180,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s Kentucky Select Yearling Sale in 2018.

After not panning out as a Kentucky Derby prospect in 2020, Three Technique’s subsequent stakes and allowance struggles led to a November 2021 claimer at Churchill Downs. The Kentucky-based Cook won a 27-way shake to claim Three Technique for $40,000 on behalf of co-owner David Miller, a former University of Louisville quarterback.

Three Technique represents the most successful runner of Cook’s 34-year training career. The 1-mile Knicks Go Overnight on the 2022 Kentucky Derby undercard marked Cook’s first stakes victory since 1997. Three Technique also gave Cook his first career graded stakes victory in the 7-furlong John A. Nerud (G2) in July 2023 at Belmont Park. Three Technique, among only a half-dozen or so horses for Cook, finished sixth in the 2022 Dirt Mile (G1) and eighth in the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1).

Cook, a Kentucky native, is the son of the late jockey Lois C. Cook, who won the 1957 Kentucky Oaks. Three Technique’s dam, Nite in Rome (CAN), is a stakes-placed daughter of Harlan’s Holiday. Three Technique’s half-brother, Stan the Man, was multiple graded stakes placed.