Locked, after Cigar Mile win, heading to Florida

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The eventual return to the races of Fierceness and Mindframe as well as the re-emergence of Locked should give trainer Todd Pletcher a strong hand in the older male dirt division in 2025.

Locked, sidelined by a ligament injury in a knee for most of his 3-year-old season, won Saturday’s Grade 2, $500,000 Cigar Mile in just his second start of the year.

Locked, a son of Gun Runner owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Walmac Farm, was scheduled to ship to South Florida on Tuesday. Pletcher said Sunday that races like the Pegasus on Jan. 25 and the $20 million Saudi Cup on Feb. 22 will be considered.

Pletcher said Saturday that he really believes Locked will excel once stretched out around two turns, but his success in a pair of one-turn races this fall makes attractive the Saudi Cup, which is run at 1 1/8 miles around one turn.

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“The one-turn mile and an eighth suits him well off two one-turn races, the huge purse is lucrative, but I got to talk a little more [with the owners] to firm up a plan,” Pletcher said.

Locked ran by Mullikin to win the Cigar by 1 1/2 lengths, his fourth victory from six career starts. The performance was one Pletcher and the owners thought Locked would have given in races in the Triple Crown series and/or Breeders’ Cup had he been able to make them.

“It’s nice to see him finish up the year strongly, we’ve always had high hopes for him,” Pletcher said Sunday. “You think some of those races when there was a pretty hot horse going long would have set up well for him. But we’re happy to have him back and doing well.”

Locked earned a career-best 101 Beyer Speed Figure for the performance.

Mullikin came out of the Cigar Mile in good order and was expected to get a break at WinStar Farm during the winter. Races such as the Churchill Downs Stakes, the Metropolitan Handicap, and the Forego – the latter a race he won last year – could be on Mullikin’s agenda in 2025.

“Watching the replay I’m very proud of him, he ran his ass off, just got run down by a very good horse,” trainer Rodolphe Brisset said Sunday. “Based on [jockey Flavien Prat’s] comment, I don’t think our horse got tired; he kept running, the other horse ran us down the last sixteenth.”

Mullikin is co-owned by WinStar Farm and Siena Farm.

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