LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Mindframe’s finally got his head screwed on right. Quirks cost the colt dearly in the Belmont Stakes and the Haskell Invitational last year, but Mindframe made no mistakes winning the $1 million Stephen Foster Stakes on Saturday at Churchill Downs. That made a fairly remarkable double for this star 4-year-old, the 1 1/8-mile, Grade 1 Foster following Mindframe’s late-closing victory in a star-studded renewal of the Grade 1 Churchill Downs over seven furlongs. “I don’t think seven furlongs is his best distance,” jockey Irad Ortiz said. “He’s just a nice horse.” Mindframe beat another very nice horse Saturday, Sierra Leone, by one length, with First Mission, who set the pace, holding third, 1 1/4 lengths behind Sierra Leone and a neck in front of Mystik Dan. Impossible longshot Ashcroft brought up the rear, and Skippylongstocking was scratched, trainer Saffie Joseph awaiting a different, perhaps better spot, he said. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Todd Pletcher trains Mindframe for Repole Stable and St Elias Stable. Pletcher won his first Foster last year with Kingsbarns, his second a year later. With a busy Sunday morning of training ahead of him in New York, and no way to get home Saturday night, Pletcher left saddling to assistant trainer Sophie Green. “I didn’t go last year, either. I’d probably be afraid to go next year,” said Pletcher, reached by phone. It was, Pletcher said, a gratifying performance even to watch from afar. Mindframe loudly announced his vast talent from his first race, a Gulfstream sprint maiden romp in late March 2024. His second race, a route allowance, came on Derby Day last year, a stroll in the park, and only in Mindframe’s third outing, the Belmont Stakes, did he find himself in actual competition. He was, frankly, not in the right frame of mind for it. Talent was not the issue: Mindframe cruised from a stalking position to take a lead in upper stretch, but when Ortiz, who has ridden Mindframe every start, went to a left-handed crop, the inexperienced colt ducked out sharply. Swerving sideways rather than running to the wire, Mindframe snatched Belmont defeat from the jaws of victory – and then pulled a similar trick in the Haskell Invitational, an eerie repeat of his Belmont run, another second-place finish. Bone bruising took Mindframe out of action the rest of 2024, and his comeback victory in a one-turn Gulfstream stakes this spring fell below his high standard. The Churchill Downs was a different story, Mindrame rolling from seventh at the stretch call to first at the wire, and in an entirely different kind of race, where he pressed a route pace from the start, Mindframe ran even better Saturday. With pace player Skippylongstocking out of the picture, First Mission went straight to the lead from post 1 under Luis Saez, going a moderate opening quarter-mile in 23.94, Mindframe stalking comfortably from second. Not much happened off the clubhouse turn and down the first part of the backstretch, but the action heated up before the half-mile pole. Up front, Saez made a break for it, attempting to open daylight into the far turn, while at the back of the field, Flavien Prat aboard Sierra Leone knew he couldn’t merely sit back and wait to make one late run. Sierre Leone responded to Prat’s request to improve his position and rolled up on the far outside into the turn, whereupon Ortiz asked Mindframe to get closer to First Mission. Ortiz appeared to have First Mission covered, but peeking over his right shoulder at the three-furlong marker he saw Sierra Leone’s dark blinkers. “I said, ‘Oh my God, he’s already there?’” Ortiz said. Sierra Leone earned an Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old last year, but he lacks Mindframe’s speed and burst, and the Foster essentially was won turning for home. “At the three-eighths pole he was going well, and I knew I was going to run well, maybe win,” Prat said. “The winner, when we turned for home, kind of kicked away better than I did. I was just grinding.” Mindframe took First Mission’s measure at the three-sixteenths pole and opened two lengths at the furlong grounds, plenty of daylight to hold clear Sierra Leone’s final surge. And while Sierra Leone gained ground to the wire, Mindframe galloped out like he wanted another 1 1/8 miles. Narrowly favored, Mindframe paid $5.76 and was timed in 1:47.48 over a fast track while running his Churchill mark to three wins from three starts. Mindframe received a preliminary Beyer Speed Figure of 103. He also ran straight to the wire. Ortiz showed his mount the crop more than he used it, but he did go to the stick four times, and Mindframe, unlike in his Grade 1s last year, never reacted. “He ran all the way to the wire,” Ortiz said. Prat lauded Sierra Leone’s performance, a step up from a mild third-place finish in a lone start since winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic in November, the New Orleans Classic on March 22. “I don’t think he had much of a race in Louisiana, so I feel like it’s his first race,” Prat said. First Mission, a close third choice at 5-2, got his half-mile in a comfortable 47.94 but still could not land an elusive first Grade 1. Mystik Dan got a perfect trip under Brian Hernandez but could not make the necessary improvement upon his win in the Blame Stakes last out. Mindframe, who will stand at Claiborne Farm upon his retirement, was bred by the late R Larry Johnson, and is by Constitution out of Walk of Stars, by Street Sense. His record now stands at 7-5-2-0, and after three increasingly impressive wins to start his 4-year-old campaign, the best might yet be to come. “It was good to see him run a professional race. He’s learned his lessons,” Pletcher said. The Breeders’ Cup Classic’s the obvious year-end goal for Mindframe; the Foster is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series and Mindframe earned automatic fees-paid entry into the Classic. What comes before that target remains to be seen. The Whitney, another million-dollar Grade 1, comes Aug. 2 at Saratoga. Pletcher and Repole already have Fierceness pointed there. “I’m not saying we wouldn’t run both horses. We have to sort it out,” Pletcher said. First-world problems that arise from Mindframe, a top-shelf talent, becoming a first-class racehorse. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.