Sierra Leone, the champion 3-year-old of 2024 and winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic, had his first timed workout this year on Jan. 6. Yet when he starts Saturday at Churchill Downs in the Grade 1, $1 million Stephen Foster Stakes, the year half over, Sierra Leone races for only the second time as a 4-year-old. After a foot abscess halted an intended February trip for the $20 million Saudi Cup, Sierra Leone made his 2025 bow March 22 in the New Orleans Classic. Favored at 3-10, Sierra Leone never traveled like a winner, finishing a tepid third. Only now can Sierra Leone better show where he stands in a loaded older-male dirt route division, and his second start of the year comes in a loaded renewal of the 1 1/8-mile Foster, which is a Win and You’re In for the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar on Nov. 1. The field of seven includes First Mission, one of the faster American dirt horses of the last two seasons, as well as his Brad Cox-trained stablemate, Hit Show, winner last out in the $12 million Dubai World Cup. Mindframe, who looked like a winner but wasn’t in the Belmont and the Haskell last season, landed a sparkling renewal of the Grade 1 Churchill Downs on Derby Day. Mystik Dan captured the Blame last month, his first win since the 2024 Kentucky Derby, where Sierra Leone finished second by a nose. Even 11-time winner Skippylongstocking has earned more than $3.6 million. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. “It’s the race of the year if you ask me,” said Mystik Dan’s trainer, Kenny McPeek. Sierra Leone’s trainer, Chad Brown, knew in March that the late-spring stakes calendar lacked races that suited a champion who needs at least 1 1/8 miles, maybe even 1 1/4 miles, to show his best. “There’s a big gap in his campaign because there just wasn’t anything that made sense,” Brown said. “It’s been frustrating waiting to run the horse, but he’s doing very well. Outside of another lukewarm pace scenario, everything about the race makes sense to me.” The Foster lacks determined front-runners, and no one seems to have a solid sense of how the race unfolds. What has been solidly established is that Sierra Leone can struggle in slower-paced contests, a factor in his New Orleans defeat. And there’s no chance the Foster tempo turns anywhere close to as fast as in the BC Classic. “There’s going to be decisions made at every furlong pole,” Brown said. Flavien Prat makes the decisions on Sierra Leone, who appears to have gotten past his lugging-in habit, which might have cost him the Derby. Mindframe had his own quirks as a 3-year-old. He beat maidens and first-level allowance rivals so easily his first two starts during the spring of 2024 that trainer Todd Pletcher tried him in the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga. At the quarter pole, swooping down, Mindframe looked a sure winner, but when Irad Ortiz Jr. went to the crop in the heat of battle, something entirely new for Mindframe, the colt ducked out dramatically, lost momentum, and gave the race away. Remarkably, the same thing happened in the Haskell with Mindframe veering in and out every time he saw Ortiz brandish the crop. He finished second after running a winning race to the three-sixteenths pole. Bone bruising cut short Mindframe’s sophomore campaign. He’s 2 for 2 at age 4, a humdrum Gulfstream Park comeback followed by a powerful surge that pushed him from seventh at the stretch call to first in the Churchill Downs, where he beat Grade 1-level horses Nysos and Book’em Danno. Mindframe hasn’t shied from Ortiz’s crop in either race this year. Pletcher said he kept Mindframe at one turn dodging stablemate Fierceness while trying to nab a Grade 1, accomplished last month. “We’re very excited about getting him back to two turns,” Pletcher said. “He’s a very kind horse, very rateable, got enough natural speed.” Mindframe shouldn’t race far from the lead, nor should First Mission, who drew the rail. Prat gave First Mission a perfect trip last out in the April 19 Oaklawn Handicap, which the horse won with a career-best 109 Beyer. Luis Saez takes the reins Saturday and could hustle his mount for early position from post 1, and while First Mission finished fourth at odds-on in the 2024 Foster, he comes to this edition after a longer break. “This was the plan starting last winter: Two runs at Oaklawn and then you’re in a position to try and win a Grade 1,” Cox said. Cox could envision First Mission sitting fifth. He could also see his horse leading. :: Subscribe to the DRF Post Time Email Newsletter: Get the news you need to play today's races!  “The pace scenario isn’t a little murky, it’s very murky,” he said. Hit Show hadn’t won above the Grade 2 level before edging the American horse Mixto in Dubai. The performance wasn’t a fluke, but when odds-on favorite Forever Young failed to fire, there wasn’t a lot to beat in the 1 1/4-mile World Cup. “On paper, I don’t think this really sets up that well for him. He needs a pace to run into,” Cox said. Mystik Dan got a dream run under Brian Hernandez Jr. winning the Derby and another one in the Blame. After sputtering through the second half of 2024 and early 2025, Mystik Dan found his better form this spring. The colt loves Churchill and has trained with verve in recent weeks, yet he’ll need the race of his life to win. “You got to get them in there and see what happens. He’s done it before, but this is a gunfight,” said McPeek. “Is he bringing a big enough gun? Ask me Saturday night.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.