Breeders' Cup Classic: Pletcher gets some serious work into his trio of contenders
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Frost gave way to fog, which ultimately gave way to bright sunshine and blue skies Friday morning in time for trainer Todd Pletcher to work three of his potential four Breeders’ Cup Classic contenders on a crisp morning in Saratoga.
Antiquarian, the Jockey Club Gold Cup winner, and Mindframe, the two-time Grade 1 winner this year who lost his rider in the early stages of the Gold Cup, went five furlongs together in 1:01.04 over Saratoga’s Oklahoma training track. With Antiquarian on the inside, the pair went their first three furlongs in 37.20 seconds and got their last quarter in 23.84 while continuing out six furlongs in 1:13.95, seven furlongs in 1:26.90, and pulling up a mile in 1:40.84.
That team breezed right after Fierceness, the Pacific Classic winner and last year’s BC Classic runner-up, went five furlongs in 1:01.38, getting his final quarter in 24.40. He started his work inside of El Capi, a 4-year-old colt who has not raced since July 2024 and who has not made a start for Pletcher. El Capi stopped at the eighth pole, leaving Fierceness to finish the work and gallop-out on his own. He went six furlongs in 1:14.97, seven furlongs in 1:26.79, and pulled up a mile in 1:41.26.
Pletcher did not work Locked, who is coming off a victory in the Grade 2 Woodward on Sept. 27. While Locked also is being considered for the BC Dirt Mile, Pletcher said Friday the ownership group, which includes Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, is leaning toward running in the Classic. Locked will return to the work tab next week, Pletcher said.
Friday’s serious drills might have meant the most for Mindframe, who is attempting to win the Classic without having a real race since he won the Grade 1 Stephen Foster on June 28 at Churchill Downs. He was bumped soon after the start of the Jockey Club Gold Cup, and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. was unseated. Mindframe ran loose until about the quarter pole.
“It’s hard to quantify what he got out of the Jockey Club, he ran around there probably a mile and an eighth,” Pletcher said. “He didn’t do what a lot of loose horses will do and go crazy. He got some conditioning out of it; you can’t necessarily call it a true race, it was still some sort of an effort.”
Pletcher believes that running Mindframe in the Lukas Classic or Woodward in late September wasn’t going to propel Mindframe forward. He noted that Mindframe won his debut by 13 3/4 lengths and came off a seven-month layoff to win the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile earlier this year.
“We’re training him,” Pletcher said. “This morning was a pretty strong work, pretty strong gallop-out.”
Of Antiquarian, Pletcher said “the farther he goes the better he gets.”
Pletcher said Fierceness continues to train the same as he has before and since the Pacific Classic.
“It’s the way he always works,” Pletcher said. “He does things so easily and keeps going.”
Pletcher could have as many as nine horses for the Breeders’ Cup. In addition to the aforementioned quartet, Pletcher has Ted Noffey (Juvenile), Tommy Jo (Juvenile Fillies), Final Score (Juvenile Turf), and Time to Dream (Juvenile Fillies Turf), all of whom are coming off races the first week in October.
Pletcher said a decision on whether to run Leslie’s Rose in the Distaff was to be made in concert with owner Mandy Pope over the weekend.
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