Sacco sending Just Beat the Odds to Saratoga for next start
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Just Beat the Odds did his preparations at Tampa this winter before he finished a terrific second, three-quarters of a length behind Imagination in the $2 million Riyadh Dirt Sprint.
Trainer Gregg Sacco said he was proud of his colt’s effort after he set the pace and put away two pace challengers only to get nailed late by Imagination.
Sacco said Just Beat the Odds would return to the U.S. on Saturday, then spend about six weeks at the Fair Hill training center in Maryland before shipping to Saratoga when that backstretch opens in mid-April.
Sacco said he will target either the Grade 3, $400,000 True North at Saratoga on June 6 or the Alfred G. Vanderbilt, typically run at the end of July. Just Beat the Odds, who won the Grade 3 Elite Power at Aqueduct on Dec. 6, has the BC Sprint as his year-end goal.
“He passed this test with flying colors, he shows up every time,” Sacco said on Monday back in the U.S. “He’s a strong, healthy progressive 6-year-old. He came out of the race super which is the main thing.”
Meanwhile, Sacco’s other graded stakes-winning sprinter, Crazy Mason is back on the work tab at Tampa gearing up for his 2026 debut. Crazy Mason, last year’s Grade 2 Carter winner, has had two three-furlong workouts at Tampa and was scheduled to work again on Tuesday.
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