Happy Saver, Mystic Guide rematched at classic distance in Suburban

ELMONT, N.Y. – Though he’s undefeated in five career starts, including a Grade 1 victory in last fall’s Jockey Club Gold Cup, it’s not out of line to wonder just how good a horse is Happy Saver.

He has been managed adroitly by trainer Todd Pletcher since starting his career on what was Belmont Stakes Day (June 20) last summer before winning an allowance at Saratoga and then the Federico Tesio at Pimlico in September. His coming-out party of sorts came in last October’s Jockey Club Gold Cup, when he beat fellow 3-year-old Mystic Guide by three-quarters of a length, both upending the underachieving 4-year-old Tacitus in that spot.

Nearly nine months have passed since then, and the quality of that victory looks better after Mystic Guide has gone 2 for 2 as a 4-year-old, including a victory in the $12 million Dubai World Cup.

So, Mystic Guide has obviously stepped forward from 3 to 4. Saturday, Happy Saver gets his chance to prove how far he has come when he takes on Mystic Guide and four others in the Grade 2, $400,000 Suburban Stakes at Belmont Park.

Irad Ortiz Jr., who has been aboard Happy Saver in four of his victories, says the colt just does what he has to do in his races.

“I think he runs with his company, honestly,” Ortiz said. “Everybody he faces, he just goes by and after he goes by he’s playing around a little, waiting a little bit on horses. I don’t really know how much more he can give me.

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“He’s a fighter, he’s got a big heart,” Ortiz added. “He sees a horse in front of him and he just goes on, he wants to go by that horse. That’s what I know.”

The Suburban, like the Jockey Club, is run at 1 1/4 miles. The Suburban offers its winner an automatic, fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Classic to be run at Del Mar on Nov. 6. The Suburban will be broadcast nationally on NBC in a one-hour program beginning at 5 p.m. Eastern and goes as the final race on a 10-race card that begins at 1 p.m.

Happy Saver, a son of 2010 Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver, made a successful 4-year-old debut winning a one-mile allowance race by a length over Top Seed here on May 28.

“He did it easily,” Ortiz said.

This will be Happy Saver’s first race without the anti-bleeding medication Lasix. He carries co-topweight of 124 pounds, the same as Mystic Guide.

Mystic Guide, a son of Ghostzapper, seemed to step his game up last year when trainer Michael Stidham added blinkers to his equipment. He won the Grade 2 Jim Dandy in them before his second-place finish in the Gold Cup, where Mystic Guide went around Tacitus while Happy Saver found a convenient opening along the rail and slipped through.

Mystic Guide won the Grade 3 Razorback in the slop at Oaklawn before a visually impressive 3 3/4-length victory in the Dubai World Cup. There is a chance for an off track come Saturday.

“He definitely advanced in everything; his stature, he’s just a bigger, stronger, and I think a little more focused in doing what he does,” Stidham said.

The blinkers enable Mystic Guide to stay closer to the pace, which is something that may come into play in a race without any true early speed types. Stidham had said prior to the Dubai World Cup that breaking well was key and the same holds true in the Suburban.

Luis Saez rides Mystic Guide from post 4.

Moretti, also trained by Pletcher, could be forward after breaking from the rail under Flavien Prat. He is coming off a third in the Brooklyn Stakes here on June 5 and is using this race as a way to get to the Birdstone, a 1 3/4-mile race he won last year, at Saratoga.

Max Player is in search of his first win since he took the Grade 3 Withers at Aqueduct in February 2020. He finished third in the Travers and Belmont Stakes, but has not run well this year in either the Saudi Cup or Pimlico Special.

Prioritize was fourth in last year’s Jockey Club Gold Cup and fifth in this year’s Pimlico Special.

Informative is coming off a 79-1 upset victory in the Salvator Mile for trainer Uriah St. Lewis, who in 2018 won the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup with 45-1 shot Discreet Lover.