SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Six weeks ago, when he was on the verge of bringing Forza Di Oro back to the races off a long layoff, trainer Bill Mott said he had always thought the son of Speightstown was a horse that could compete at the highest level. “But they’ve got to prove it,” Mott said at the time. Saturday, Forza Di Oro gets his chance to prove it when he runs in the Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga. The Gold Cup, being run at Saratoga for the first time after being a staple of the Belmont Park fall meet, is a Win and You’re In qualifier for the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 6 at Del Mar. Forza Di Oro, a winner of 4 of 6 races, has twice had his career interrupted by ankle surgery. Last November, he won the Grade 3 Discovery at Aqueduct by 3 3/4 lengths and was training up to the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park in January when he suffered another ankle injury that required surgery. Forza Di Oro made it back to the races on July 21, winning a third-level allowance race going 1 1/8 miles here by three lengths. The 101 Beyer Speed Figure he earned that day equaled the number he earned winning the Discovery. :: DRF’s Labor Day Sale: Save big on DRF Formulator Past Performances, Picks, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and DRF+ Pro. Limited time only. “How could it be any better?” Mott said of the performance, in which he stalked the speed from second and drew clear in the lane. “I don’t know what else you could have asked for.” Mott said in Happy Saver, winner of last year’s Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont, and Max Player, winner of this year’s Grade 2 Suburban at Belmont, Forza Di Oro is facing “his biggest test. “He’s never been challenged with this good a group,” Mott added. Junior Alvarado rides Forza Di Oro from the rail. Max Player showed a new dimension when he won the Grade 2 Suburban at 1 1/4 miles on July 3. He had been a late-running sort until the Suburban, where he was put into the race by Ricardo Santana Jr. sitting an up-close second. “Every single time I’ve run him I was disappointed with how he ran away from the gates as we were trying to constantly get him to run away from the gates better,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. Asmussen, noting that Belmont is a different configuration than Saratoga, said the Jockey Club Gold Cup will give him a better line on Max Player. “I think what we will find out is if he’s capable of this race anywhere other than Belmont,” Asmussen said “The Suburban was the right race for him because of where it was run.” Max Player breaks from post 2 under Santana.Happy Saver went 4 for 4 at age 3, capped by a victory over Mystic Guide in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup last October at Belmont. He didn’t make his 4-year-old debut until May 28, when he won an allowance race by a length going a one-turn mile. In the Suburban, run over a sloppy track, Happy Saver was wide throughout, ultimately finishing third, 2 3/4 lengths behind Max Player. “He got hung out all the way around there, which you can do from an outside post going a mile and a quarter at Belmont,” said Todd Pletcher, trainer of Happy Saver. “He didn’t run badly, he just couldn’t quite polish it off.” It has already been a banner meet for trainer Brad Cox, who won the Whitney with Knicks Go and the Travers and Jim Dandy with Essential Quality. On Saturday, he sends out Night Ops as a bit of a longshot in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Night Ops, a son of Warrior’s Reward, has finished second in four consecutive stakes, though his runner-up finish to Art Collector in the Alydar Stakes looks better following Art Collector’s victory in the $800,000 Charles Town Classic. :: Visit DRF's Saratoga shop for all your handicapping needs: Past performances, picks, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and more “He’s there, he just has to get over the hump,” Cox said. “Hopeful that maybe a mile and a quarter can get him there. I think he’ll run with anyone. I think he’ll have to step up, but I also think his last race was really, really good.” With no defined pace in the Jockey Club, Night Ops figures to be up close early under Manny Franco. Chess Chief, who won the Grade 3 New Orleans Classic in March, and longshot Forewarned complete the field. The Jockey Club will go as the last of 12 races on a card that begins at 12:30 p.m. and includes the Grade 1 Flower Bowl for females on turf, the Grade 2 Prioress for 3-year-old filly sprinters, and the Grade 3 Saranac for 3-year-old males on turf.