Pletcher to keep his top two separate as Fierceness will go solo in Whitney
?q=100)
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – When entries close Sunday for the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney Stakes at Saratoga, expect to see Mindframe’s name on the overnight.
When the gate opens for Saturday’s Whitney, don’t expect to see Mindframe breaking from it.
Todd Pletcher, who trains both Mindframe and Fierceness, said the plan is to run only Fierceness while training Mindframe up to the Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup here on Aug. 31. Pletcher said since entries are made six days out from the race, Mindframe would most likely only run if something happened to Fierceness that precluded him from running.
In a perfect world, Fierceness and Mindframe won’t face each other until the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic.
“We’re going to plan to enter both, make sure we have a good week and if everything goes smoothly, the plan is to run Fierceness,” Pletcher said Saturday. “We’re fortunate to have two horses that are multiple Grade 1 winners that are capable of running in these kind of races. Try to keep them separated as long as we can, but they’re both in a position to run if for some reason one of them wasn’t available.”
Mike Repole and the Coolmore connections of Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Susan Magnier, own Fierceness. Repole and the St. Elias Stable of Vinnie and Teresa Viola own Mindframe.
Fierceness, a three-time Grade 1 winner including the Travers Stakes here last summer, is coming off a second-place finish in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap on June 7.
Mindframe, runner-up in the 2024 Belmont Stakes and Haskell, won two straight Grade 1 stakes – the Churchill Downs and Stephen Foster – after beginning this year with a victory in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile.
On Saturday, both horses put in workouts roughly 90 minutes apart over Saratoga’s main track.
Shortly after 7 a.m., Fierceness worked a half-mile in 49.64 seconds, once again in company with stablemate Dreamlike. The work was similar to what Fierceness has been doing the last few weeks, with Fierceness finishing in front of his mate. The difference this week was he was not asked to gallop-out as powerfully as in previous weeks.
“We tried to do a little bit less with him today than he did last week,” Pletcher said. “He had such a big work last week, such a strong gallop out, this was more a maintenance type, final breeze.”
A little while later, Mindframe worked a half-mile in 49.22 seconds in company with Classicist, Mindframe galloping out five furlongs in 1:01.43 and six furlongs in 1:14.93. It was Mindframe’s second work since his victory in the Stephen Foster on June 28.
“If we did run, we didn’t need to do a lot with him; I thought we did enough this morning to make sure he’d be ready if we needed to go,” Pletcher said. “If we don’t run, the Jockey Club’s not until Aug. 31 so I didn’t want to overdo it.”
The Whitney field is expected to include Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Sierra Leone, 2023 Whitney winner White Abarrio, 2024 Whitney runner-up Post Time, 2024 Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Highland Falls, nine-time graded stakes winner Skippylongstocking, and Contrary Thinking. The latter horse was recently purchased by Peter Brant, part-owner of Sierra Leone, and will be utilized as a pacemaker in the Whitney.
On Saturday, Sierra Leone worked a half-mile in 48.80 seconds in company with Secured Lender.
“Great work, very happy, hopefully he comes out of it good,” trainer Chad Brown said. “I’m very, very pleased where I’m at with that horse.”
Contrary Thinking, a recent allowance winner going a one-turn mile, worked a half-mile in 50 seconds over the Belmont Park training track.
Highland Falls, coming off a one-turn mile allowance win at Aqueduct on June 27, worked five furlongs in 1:01.55 for the Whitney. Skippylongstocking worked a half-mile in 49.22 seconds at Saratoga. At the Fair Hill training center in Maryland, Post Time worked five furlongs in 1:03.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.