National Treasure scoring the Met Mile. (Adam Coglianese/NYRA)
Winner Gains Automatic Berth into $7 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic
Breeders’ Cup Release
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Multiple grade 1 winner National Treasure leads a 12-horse field in Saturday’s $1 million Whitney Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course live on Fox Saratoga Saturday, with coverage beginning at 3 p.m. ET. The race winner will earn an automatic starting position, and fees paid, into the $7 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) through the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series: Win and You’re In.
The Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series is an international series of 82 stakes races whose winners receive automatic starting positions and fees paid into a corresponding race of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, which will be held Nov. 1-2 at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar California.
The 1 1/8-mile Whitney, for 4-year-olds and up, with a scheduled post time of 5:42 p.m. ET, anchors the three-hour broadcast of top-flight stakes races on “FOX Saratoga Saturday” from Saratoga Springs, New York. The program will also include the $600,000 Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes (G1) at 1 3/16 miles for 3-year-olds; the $500,000 Test Stakes presented by Ticketmaster (G1) at 7 furlongs for 3-year-old fillies; the $135,000 Fasig-Tipton Lure Stakes, for 4-year-olds and up going 1 1/16 miles on turf, and the $300,000 Troy Stakes (G2) at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf, for 4-year-olds and up, which will precede the Whitney in “The Purple Hour” from 5-6 p.m.
National Treasure, owned by SF Racing LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, Robert E. Masterson, Stonestreet Stables LLC, Jay A. Schoenfarber, Waves Edge Capital LLC and Catherine Donovan, is the 9-5 morning line favorite in the Whitney. He was voted co-No.1, along with Haskell Stakes (G1) and Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Dornoch, as the top-rated horse in the first weekly international poll of the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic Rankings.
Trained by Bob Baffert, National Treasure has won two Grade 1 races this year, taking the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) in January at Gulfstream Park, and the June 8 Hill ‘n’ Dale Metropolitan Handicap (G1) at Saratoga on June 8. He will be ridden by Flavian Prat from post 4.
Godolphin’s 4-year-old First Mission, the second choice at 9-2, has won two of four starts this year, including the May 3 Alysheba Stakes (G2) at Churchill Downs. Trained by Brad Cox, who won the Whitney and the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic in 2021 with Knicks Go, First Mission is looking to rebound from a fourth-place finish last time out in the Stephen Foster Stakes (G1) at Churchill.
Trainer Todd Pletcher is seeking a record-tying fifth Whitney win. He has three Whitney starters, entering Bright Future and Crupi ─ both sons of Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Curlin, and both owned by Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable LLC ─ and Charge It, a son of Tapit owned by Whisper Hill Farm, LLC. Bright Future won his 2024 debut, taking June 15 Salvator Mile Stakes (G3) at Monmouth Park. His career highlight came last summer at Saratoga when he won the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1). Bright Future will be ridden by Javier Castellano from post 5.
Crupi has a win over the track, capturing the June 8 Suburban Stakes (G2). He will be ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr. from post 7. Charge It is coming off a fifth-place finish in the listed Hanshin Stakes presented by JRA on June 30 at Churchill Downs. John Velazquez has the mount from post 12.
Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC’s 4-year-old Disarm, trained by Steve Asmussen, finished second in last year’s Travers Stakes (G1) at Saratoga to Arcangelo. Newly inducted Hall of Fame Jockey Joel Rosario will ride Disarm from post 2.
Asmussen trains the odds-on morning line favorite, Cogburn, in the Troy Stakes. The 5-year-old gained a free berth into the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1) when he won the June 8 Jaipur Stakes presented by Resolute Racing (G1) at Saratoga.
