Forza di Oro wins way into Jockey Club Gold Cup

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After making a successful return to the races in an allowance race Wednesday, Forza Di Oro will be pointed to the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup here on Sept. 4, trainer Bill Mott said.

Forza Di Oro won the Grade 3 Discovery in November 2020, but was sidelined with an ankle injury that delayed his 4-year-old debut until Wednesday. He won that 1 1/8-mile race, over a sealed, muddy track, by widening three lengths and earned a 100 Beyer Speed Figure.

“I was absolutely pleased, without a doubt,” Mott said. “The way he had been working, the way he looked training, it’s not a surprise.”

The Jockey Club Gold Cup, at 1 1/4 miles and a longtime staple of the Belmont fall meet, is being run at Saratoga for the first time.

“He looks like he gets the trip to me,” Mott said. “Until you do it, you don’t know, but he came off the bench and went a mile and an eighth.”