Jockey Club Gold Cup start of money run for Effinex

ELMONT, N.Y. – A well-bred horse with five graded stakes wins and more than $3 million in the bank would figure to be headed to the breeding shed at the conclusion of his 5-year-old season. But if Russell Cohen stays true to his word, his family-owned Effinex will return to the races in 2017 as a 6-year-old.

“He’s sound as a dollar bill, the purses are huge, and he’s really talented,” Cohen said Wednesday at Belmont. “From an owner-breeder point of view, you certainly couldn’t pay to have any more run than we’re having. Why should I retire him?”

Effinex, a New York-bred son of Mineshaft, finished second to American Pharoah in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic and then won the Grade 1 Clark at Churchill Downs.

On Saturday, he will try to earn a fees-paid berth in this year’s $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, to be run at Santa Anita, when he runs against five rivals in the Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park.

The Gold Cup is the featured event on a Super Saturday card that includes six other stakes. First post is 12:15 p.m. Eastern.

Effinex drew post 6 and will be ridden by Mike Smith in the Gold Cup, which will go as race 10 on the 11-race card. From the rail, the Gold Cup drew Protonico, Mubtaahij, Hoppertunity, War Story, Watershed, and Effinex.

Cohen said the purses of the BC Classic, the newly created $12 million Pegasus World Cup, to be run Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park, and the $10 million Dubai World Cup in March are more than enough incentive to keep his horse in training another year despite offers to stand him at stud.

“Now, if he ever goes unsound or gets a hair out of place, I’ll consider it,” he said.

Cohen said he has been approached by someone with a slot in the Pegasus – for which 12 entities paid $1 million each – hoping to get a horse in the race. Cohen declined to say who approached him.

Effinex, trained by Jimmy Jerkens, has made 29 starts, winning nine and banking $3.04 million. In addition to winning the Clark and the Suburban twice, he has won the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap and Grade 3 Excelsior.

On Wednesday, Effinex blew out three furlongs in 36.62 seconds over the Belmont Park training track in preparation for the Gold Cup.

The complexion of the Gold Cup field changed a little bit this week. On Sunday, Jerkens announced that Woodward winner Shaman Ghost would skip the Gold Cup and train up to the Breeders’ Cup.

Samraat, who finished second, beaten a neck by Effinex, in the Suburban, was not entered in the Jockey Club. Trainer Rick Violette said Samraat isn’t doing “as well as he needs to in order to run in a race like this.”

Those two defections prompted trainer Todd Pletcher to redirect Protonico from the Grade 2 Kelso at a mile to the 1 1/4-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup. Protonico, a four-time graded stakes winner, came off a layoff of more than nine months to win a classified allowance race by a nose over Ocean Knight on Sept. 11.

“The only thing we’re missing on his résumé is a Grade 1,” Pletcher said. “That would be huge for him if he were able to get that done. With a few of the major players not showing up – Shaman Ghost and Samraat – we felt this might be the right spot at the right time.”