SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The England-based trainer Charlie Appleby enjoyed tremendous success in the U.S. in 2024, winning 14 graded stakes from 56 starters including four such events at Saratoga. Aside from sending out three runners at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 25 – none of whom won – Appleby has thus far, been absent from the North American scene in 2025. That changes Saturday when Appleby will be represented by the pair of Nations Pride and El Cordobes in the Grade 1, $750,000 Sword Dancer Stakes at Saratoga. Nations Pride, a 6-year-old son of Teofilo, is no stranger to Saratoga having won the Grade 1 Saratoga Derby here in 2022 and finishing second to stablemate Measured Time in the Grade 1 Manhattan in 2024. Last year, he won the Grade 1 Arlington Million, a 1 1/4-mile race being run again Saturday at Colonial Downs, where Nations Pride would most likely have been a clear favorite. The Sword Dancer is run at 1 1/2 miles, a distance at which he won the Jockey Club Derby at Aqueduct in 2022. “Charlie made the decision he wanted to stretch him back out to a mile and a half now at this stage in his career,” said Chris Connett, assistant to Appleby. “I believe he’s only run three times at a mile and a half – the English Derby [eighth], he won at Aqueduct, and was fifth in the Breeders’ Cup beaten three lengths. His form at the mile-and-a-half [distance] isn’t too shabby.” :: Get exclusive Saratoga Clocker Reports from Mike Welsch and the Clocker Team. Available every race day.  Nations Pride’s three starts this year came in races run at 1 1/8 miles. Connett said Nations Pride may not have had sufficient preparation for the Pegasus World Cup Turf, where he finished ninth, beaten five lengths. He bounced back with a victory in the Group 2 Singspiel Stakes at Meydan in March. In the Dubai Turf, Nations Pride was buried along the rail and was never a factor, in a race won by Soul Rush by a nose over Romantic Warrrior. “He’s a horse of real quality and sometimes a race doesn’t quite set up for him and hopefully we’ll get a better setup on Saturday,” Connett said. “His regular [morning] rider at the moment is Kieren Fallon” – a former champion jockey – “and he’s fantastic with getting these older horses and sweetening them up. We’re very positive going into Saturday.” William Buick will ride Nations Pride, choosing him over El Cordobes, whom Buick rode to a two-length victory in the Group 2 Princess of Wales’s Stakes at Newmarket. El Cordobes raced up close to the pace while being covered up in that race. When Buick swung him wide in the stretch he closed nicely to win. Flavien Prat rides El Cordobes Saturday from the rail. “That last run was a big step forward for him, he showed a nice turn of foot,” Connett said. “Over a mile and a half, he finishes off his races really well.” In last year’s Sword Dancer, the Appleby duo of measured Time and Silver Knott finished second and third, respectively, behind Far Bridge who that day seized control of the race early when no one went for the early lead. The Sword Dancer was the first of what has become five wins from his last seven starts for Far Bridge, a streak that includes the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic last fall and the Grade 2 Bowling Green last month. “He’s amazingly versatile,” trainer Miguel Clement said. “His works in the morning are spectacular in front, sometimes I ease him in behind. He can do anything. He’s a bit like [multiple Grade 1 winner] Deterministic in that sense, where once you make them versatile in the mornings it makes it very fun and deadly in the afternoon for a jockey because they are able to call audibles, change tactics last moment. Versatility is a very, very, very key feature in top-class horses.” Utah Beach, trained by Ignacio Correas IV, won the Grade 2 Elkhorn at Keeneland the Grade 3 Louisville at Churchill during the spring before finishing seventh, with trouble, in the Chorleywood at 1 3/8 miles on June 14. In addition to having to check in the race, Utah Beach may have wanted more ground than the 1 3/8 miles of that race afforded him. “The longer the better for him,” Correas said. ”That’s why I can say in the Chorleywood the mile and three eighths is still a little short for him. That eighth of a mile makes a big difference for him.” Jose Ortiz rides Utah Beach from the outside post. Though drawn in post 9, it is expected that Grand Sonata will scratch to run in the Arlington Million. Rebel Red, trained by Cherie DeVaux, twice finished behind Utah Beach before beating him in the Chorleywood. He is coming back three weeks after running seventh in the Grade 2 United Nations at Monmouth Park on July 19. Vote No, Padiddle, and El Rezeen complete the field for the Sword Dancer, which offers its winner a fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 1. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.