Sierra Leone conquers the Whitney Aug. 2 at Saratoga (Angelo Lieto)
Mary Eddy/NYRA Press Office
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The reigning Champion 3-Year-Old Colt Sierra Leone got back in the win column last out in the local Grade 1 Whitney on August 2, and looks to keep his momentum rolling in Sunday’s Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup, a 10-furlong test for 3-year-olds and up, at Saratoga Race Course.
The Jockey Club Gold Cup [Race 5] awards a “Win and You’re In” berth into the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic and is one of two stakes on Sunday’s card, which also features the restricted $135,000 Disco Partner in Race 10. First post on the 14-race card is 11:20 a.m. Eastern.
Trained by five-time Eclipse Award-winner Chad Brown, Sierra Leone will face off with several of his rivals from the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney, with the top-four finishers from that event set to square off again in Sunday’s much-anticipated showdown that will also feature multiple Grade 1-winners Mindframe and White Abarrio.
The 4-year-old Gun Runner colt enters from his one-length score in the nine-furlong Whitney, where he utilized his typical deep-closing tactics from last-of-9 to pounce on the pace set by the dueling Mama’s Gold and returning Peter Brant-owned stablemate Contrary Thinking [post 6, Dylan Davis], and drove clear to victory under regular rider Flavien Prat.
“It was a great, memorable win for me and my team,” Brown reflected. “For Sierra Leone, it supports the ownership’s decision to keep him in training at four with a very prestigious Grade 1 win, so I’m very pleased with that.”
Brown said he is hoping for a similar trip and outcome on Sunday as Contrary Thinking is expected to again show speed.
“Absolutely,” Brown said. “He’s doing great. I’m very, very pleased with his last race and his last two works have been excellent, so I’m very pleased with him.”
Sierra Leone was awarded a 109 Beyer Speed Figure for the Whitney, which marked his first win of the year after on-the-board efforts in the Grade 2 New Orleans Classic and Grade 1 Stephen Foster, the latter one length second to Mindframe.
Campaigned by Peter Brant, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg and Brook Smith, Sierra Leone looks to use the Jockey Club Gold Cup as a steppingstone towards the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic, a race he won last year by 1 1/2 lengths in a career-best effort that was awarded a field-best 112 Beyer.
The dark bay’s sophomore campaign also included a win in the Grade 2 Risen Star at Fair Grounds Race Course and Grade 1 Blue Grass at Keeneland ahead of a nose second to Mystik Dan in the Kentucky Derby and on-the-board efforts at Saratoga in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets [third], Grade 2 Jim Dandy [second] and Grade 1 DraftKings Travers [third].
Brown said he is pleased to prep for the Breeders’ Cup Classic with a race at its 10-furlong distance.
“He’s rounding back into form, and I think we have him right back where he was last year towards the end of the year,” Brown said. “I didn’t think he’d run enough, so one more start will do him good. He seems to like a mile and a quarter.”
A $2.3 million purchase at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale, Sierra Leone is out of the Grade 1-winning Malibu Moon mare Heavenly Love, a half-sister to Forever Darling, dam of dual Group 1-winner and multimillionaire Forever Young.
Prat returns to the irons from post 3.
Repole Stable and St. Elias Stables’ Mindframe was entered in the Whitney for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher, but scratched as stablemate Fierceness entered the starting gate to finish fifth. With Fierceness entered in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic on Saturday at Del Mar, Mindframe now has his chance to shine in his first start since taking the nine-furlong Grade 1 Stephen Foster on June 28 at Churchill Downs.
“Ideally, you don’t want to run the two of them against each other when you don’t have to, when you have some other options – you try to do what is best for each horse,” Pletcher explained. “A big part of us not running Mindframe back in the Whitney was that he’s coming off a couple huge efforts. We felt like the extra time would do him well and we wanted to get a mile and a quarter race into him prior to the Breeders’ Cup, so we felt like we weren’t losing an opportunity on him by waiting for the Jockey Club.”
Mindframe returns to the course and distance that saw him finish a rallying second to Dornoch in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes last June, his third start off a pair of open-lengths victories to begin his career. He followed with a game second to that same rival in the Grade 1 NYRA Bets Haskell at Monmouth Park last July, and was away from the races until returning victoriously in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile in March at its namesake course.
The 4-year-old Constitution colt cut back to seven furlongs to take the Grade 1 Churchill Downs by a neck on May 3 at the Louisville oval, charging from 8th-of-11 to score the narrow victory over a stacked group of rivals that included the dead-heat pair of returning rival Banishing and Grade 1 Pacific Classic favorite Nysos in second, and recent Grade 1 Forego-winner Book’em Danno in fourth another head back.
Mindframe raced much closer next out when stretching out to nine furlongs in the Stephen Foster, and posted the one-length score over Sierra Leone with a prominent trip engineered by returning rider Irad Ortiz, Jr. [post 4], an effort that received a career-best 105 Beyer.
“I think his resume is awfully strong,” Pletcher said. “He’s run against some of the top horses, not only short, but long. He seems capable of doing just about anything.”
Pletcher will also saddle Centennial Farms’ Grade 3-winner Antiquarian, who enters from a head second to the reopposing Phileas Fogg in the Grade 2 Suburban presented by Subourbon on July 4 over course and distance. There, he stalked the pace set by Phileas Fogg and was still three lengths back at the stretch call, but gained on him in the stretch and came up just shy as his rival completed the course in 2:02.97.
Pletcher, who previously won this event with Happy Saver [2020] and Bright Future [2023], said he is looking forward to seeing what Antiquarian can do over the Spa main track two months later.
“I think the track was completely different at that time than it is now,” Pletcher explained. “It seemed to be a very slow, demanding, speed-favoring track. I thought he finally got closing the very last part, he just couldn’t get there in time.”
Antiquarian won the Grade 3 Peter Pan last year over the Aqueduct Racetrack main track ahead of a fifth in the Belmont Stakes. He was away from the races until a successful return in a seven-furlong optional claimer in April at Gulfstream before finishing second to Mystik Dan in the Grade 3 Blame in his effort prior to the Suburban.
Hall of Famer John Velazquez returns to the irons from post 8.
A loaded field is made even more competitive with the entry of multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire White Abarrio, who finished fourth in the Whitney in his fourth start this year for trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr.
Campaigned by C Two Racing, Gary Barber and La Milagrosa Stable, the 6-year-old son of Race Day began the year with two open-lengths romps at Gulfstream in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational in January and Grade 3 Ghostzapper in March, and did not run again until a dull fourth in the Grade 1 Hill ‘n’ Dale Metropolitan Handicap on June 7 here.
Last out in the Whitney – a race he won in 2023 for trainer Rick Dutrow, Jr. ahead of winning the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic – White Abarrio stalked the pace as far as 7 3/4 lengths back and showed a good response to be within 1 1/4 lengths of the lead at the stretch call while racing seven-wide. He kept on willingly to land four lengths back of Sierra Leone.
Joseph Jr., who welcomed White Abarrio back to his barn last year, said the gray has shown all the right signs heading into Sunday’s affair.
“I love him right now. He’s given us the confidence to feel that way, and I hope everything continues that way so we get to see the White Abarrio that’s so good when he is,” Joseph, Jr. said. “I feel just as good, if not better right now, as I did when we went into the Pegasus. Talk is cheap, but that’s how I feel. Everything he’s showing us right now is what you want to see, and hopefully, that carries over to the race.”
White Abarrio’s return to Joseph, Jr. was emotional for the Barbadian trainer, who conditioned him to a win in the Grade 1 Florida Derby as a sophomore and brought him to the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby ahead of him being moved to the Dutrow, Jr. barn for one year.
“I never in my life thought we’d ever get him back – he won two Grade 1s after that, so you’re never thinking you’ll get him back,” Joseph, Jr. said. “The first couple months I lost him, I wasn’t even within the capacity to take him back because I needed to get there mentally. It all unfolded after and the story is still being written, so hopefully, we’ve got more to come with him.”
Ricardo Santana, Jr., who was aboard for a half-mile breeze in 48.22 seconds on August 21 over the Spa main track, has the call from post 5 as regular rider Ortiz, Jr. rides Mindframe.
Godolphin’s Kentucky homebred Highland Falls [post 2, Luis Saez] seeks to successfully defend his title in this event after winning by four lengths last year for his first top-level score.
Trained by dual Eclipse Award-winner Brad Cox, the 5-year-old Curlin chestnut was last seen finishing a stalking second in the Whitney where he took a brief lead at the top of the lane before Sierra Leone edged clear of him. He held place by two lengths over the reopposing Disarm, and was awarded a career-best 107 Beyer for the effort.
“He ran a winning race second start off the layoff,” said Michael Banahan, director of bloodstock for Godolphin USA. “At the eighth pole, I thought he may win it. He just got run down – run down by a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner. There’s no shame in that at all. That was probably one of the strongest older division races of the year. We are very proud of him. He ran exceptionally well, a winning race and such, but we move on to the next day.”
Last year, Highland Falls entered this event from a 5 1/2-length second to Tapit Trice in the Grade 3 Monmouth Cup, but rebounded with aplomb to utilize a prominent trip under Flavien Prat and post the facile score in a final time of 2:03.25. He went on to close out the year with an off-the-board finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and returned this year with a 5 1/2-length romp in a one-turn mile optional claimer in June at Belmont at the Big A ahead of the Whitney.
Cox said Highland Falls is entering the race in strong form.
“I think he’s a better horse this year than last,” Cox said “I thought he showed that off the layoff at Aqueduct and his last time was really good. It was a bit of a stretched-out field going down the backside but he sat close enough to the pace there with Fierceness tracking the top-two horses and he finished up well. He showed a lot of grit and determination down the lane. He always tries hard.”
Completing the accomplished field are Lawrence Roman and trainer David Jacobson’s recent Grade 2 Charles Town Classic-winner Banishing [post 9, Jose Lezcano], who enters off nine days’ rest from his 2 1/4-length score; the aforementioned Grade 2 Suburban-winner Phileas Fogg [post 7, Kendrick Carmouche] for owner Jupiter Stable and trainer Gustavo Rodriguez; and Winchell Thoroughbreds’ Grade 3-winner and multiple Grade 1-placed Disarm [post 1, Joel Rosario] for Hall of Famer and four-time Jockey Club Gold Cup-winning trainer Steve Asmussen.
Highlighted by the 107th running of the Jockey Club Gold Cup, a special edition of Saratoga Live presented by Caesars Sportsbook will air on FOX from 1-2 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, August 31.
