Forged Steel earns BC Classic spot with another local win in Goodwood

ARCADIA, Calif. − For the sake of the 4-year-old colt Forged Steel, it’s a shame the Breeders’ Cup Classic is not run at Santa Anita this fall.

Despite being based on the East Coast with trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr., Forged Steel has won two major stakes on dirt this year at Santa Anita – the Grade 2 Hollywood Gold Cup in May, and Saturday’s Grade 1 Goodwood Stakes.

With the win in the $302,000 Goodwood Stakes, Forged Steel earned a fees-paid berth to the BC Classic at Keeneland on Oct. 31.

Forged Steel paid $27.60 in the Goodwood, as the fifth choice in a field of nine, and ended a two-race losing streak since the Hollywood Gold Cup.

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Ridden by Edwin Gonzalez, Forged Steel tracked pacesetter Taif to the end of the backstretch before taking the lead. Forged Steel led by slightly more than a length on the turn, and by 1 1/2 lengths with a furlong remaining.

Forged Steel finished 1 1/4 lengths in front of the Joseph-trained Caldera, the 5-2 second choice. Nevada Beach, winner of the 2025 Goodwood Stakes, finished third as the 6-5 favorite in his first start since a 12th-place finish of 13 in the $20 million Saudi Cup in Saudi Arabia in February.

On the backstretch, Gonzalez was concerned about a challenge from Nevada Beach, and opted to urge Forged Steel when that threat did not develop.

“I kept going,” Gonzalez said. Forged Steel “gave me what he had.”

Forged Steel ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.48.

Caldera, who had won three consecutive allowance races from April to mid-August, closed from fifth.

“I had perfect position,” jockey Paco Lopez said. “The other horse won easy. The other horse wasn’t stopping.”

Nevada Beach was as close as third at the end of the backstretch.

“He hadn’t run in a while,” jockey Juan Hernandez said. “I think it was a good effort. He was trying really hard.

“At the three-eighths pole, it was time to make my move and the horse that was on the lead took off.”

Mr. A. P., the lone 3-year-old in the field, finished fourth, followed by Original Sin, Midnight Mammoth, Taif, Vodka Vodka, and McAfee.

Forged Steel, a colt by Vekoma, has won 6 of 21 starts and earned $616,630 for the partnership of CS Racing Stable, Mathis Stables and TCC Stables.

The Hollywood Gold Cup and Goodwood Stakes are Forged Steel’s only stakes win.

After the Gold Cup, Forged Steel finished fifth in the Grade 2 Suburban Stakes at Saratoga in July, and seventh of 11 in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 22. Those races were run at 1 1/4 miles.

Joseph said last week that Forged Steel would be better suited to the distance of the Goodwood.

The win was the first career Grade 1 victory for Gonzalez, the leading rider at the fall meeting at Gulfstream Park in 2024. He rode briefly at Golden Gate Fields in the winter of 2022-2023, winning 15 races from 46 mounts.

Prior to Saturday’s, Gonzalez’s most prestigious win was the Grade 2 Carter Stakes on Point Dume at Aqueduct in April.

A two-time leading rider at Penn National in 2019 and 2020, Gonzalez, 35, moved from Puerto Rico to the United States in 2009. He has won more than 2,200 races.

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