Sierra Leone, with Whitney won, focuses on Jockey Club Gold Cup and Mindframe
?q=100)
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Sierra Leone bested his familiar nemesis Fierceness when winning Saturday’s Grade 1 Whitney Stakes. For his expected next assignment, Sierra Leone will try to exact some revenge on Mindframe - a stablemate of Fierceness - in the Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga on Aug. 31.
Sierra Leone emerged from his one-length victory in the $1 million Whitney in good order and if he continues to show trainer Chad Brown all the right signs, then he will run in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. That 1 1/4-mile race has been the stated objective for Mindframe since he beat Sierra Leone by one length in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Stakes at Churchill Downs on June 28.
“They ran against each other at Churchill two back and Mindframe got the better of him,” Brown said Sunday morning. “I think Mindframe is a really top horse and trained by a really top trainer [Todd Pletcher]. He is a formidable horse and I’m looking forward to potentially the Jockey Club Gold Cup and the Breeders’ Cup.”
Brown said while the Gold Cup is not etched in stone, he does want to run the horse again before seeking a repeat bid in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
The year-end goal for Sierra Leone, Fierceness and Mindframe is the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic. Sierra Leone beat Fierceness by 1 1/2 lengths in that race last year to clinch the 3-year-old divisional championship.
Sierra Leone had gone 0 for 2 this year before the Whitney. In the Whitney, Sierra Leone got a good setup and a terrific ride from Flavien Prat, who was able to save ground early before tipping six wide in the lane and outfinishing a game Highland Falls, last year’s Jockey Club Gold Cup winner.
“The race developed the way I hoped, he showed a lot of heart,” Brown said. “He still had to overcome some stuff, he had to take a lot of dirt and cut the corner and work a trip out. The pace was honest, but not blistering, and I think it was a fairly run race for everyone and the horse was able to come out on top. He beat a really solid field of horses. I respect a lot of horses in the race and I think it was just a huge, huge win for him.”
The Whitney pace, while not necessarily fast, was contested. That was due, in part, to Brown and Peter Brant, part-owner of Sierra Leone, running Contrary Thinking to help set the pace. Though he did not break sharp, Contrary Thinking was sent up outside of Fierceness entering the first turn and then ran up to duel with Mama’s Gold. Contrary Thinking ultimately backed up to last.
Pletcher, trainer of Fierceness, said John Velazquez told him that when Contrary Thinking backed up, he bumped with Fierceness’s hind end, though that’s hard to see on the replay.
“I have to give them a lot of credit, I think they employed team tactics pretty well,” Pletcher said. “Got outside of us on the first turn, buzzed by us and parked us wide on the far turn, so I give them credit for good strategy. I think we got hung out pretty wide on both turns, got to the lead a little sooner than we wanted to. Hats off to them for running a big race.”
Fierceness will not run in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, but will likely run again before the Breeders’ Cup Classic. The likely options include the $300,000 Woodward Stakes at Aqueduct or the $500,000 Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs, both races are believed set for Sept. 27, though neither track has officially dropped its fall schedule.
Meanwhile, Mindframe, who is 3 for 3 this year including Grade 1 victories in the Churchill Downs and Stephen Foster, worked five furlongs in 1:01.80 Sunday morning over Saratoga’s main track.
Asked if he would be looking forward to a Mindframe-Sierra Leone rematch in the Gold Cup, Pletcher said, “Yeah. Super happy with Mindframe and everything he’s done this year. Looking forward to it.”
Pletcher also plans to run Antiquarian in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Antiquarian is coming out of a head defeat to Phileas Fogg in the Grade 2 Suburban here on July 4. Phileas Fogg is also pointing to the Jockey Club.
Pletcher has not finalized plans for Locked, third in the Suburban but who earlier this year won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap.
Highland Falls, who had made only one start this year coming into the Whitney, ran a solid second, finishing two lengths clear of longshot Disarm, who is also headed to the Gold Cup. Highland Falls is likely headed to the Jockey Club Gold Cup, a race he won last year before finishing ninth in the BC Classic.
“He acted as if he was going to move forward [Saturday] and he did,” Brad Cox, trainer of Highland Falls, said. “He can compete at this level, he showed it today. And at the end of the day, all these horses take turns winning races, there’s no dominant, dominant horse, no doubt about it. It’s an open division, as far as I’m concerned. As long as he comes out of it good, we’ll probably look at the Jockey Club.”
White Abarrio, fourth, beaten fourth lengths in the Whitney, is also pointing to the Jockey Club Gold Cup, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said Monday.
“He had a very, very wide trip, seven wide on the first bend, six wide all the way around,” Joseph said about White Abarrio’s Whitney trip. “Overall, he ran a lot better than the final margin looks. The form could turn around rather easily. If we have a good four weeks, we’re going to the Jockey Club.”
Joseph said that Skippylongstocking, who made an ambitious middle-move to the lead but faded to seventh in the Whitney, came out of the race well enough to point to the Aug. 22 Charles Town Classic, a race he has won the last two years.
Golf cart crashes behind stalls prior to Whitney
When Brown was saddling Contrary Thinking prior to the Whitney Stakes, he heard and felt a bang from the outside of the saddling stalls. It turns out a golf cart crashed into the back of the saddling stalls.
“I got finished putting the saddle on him and he jumped forward,” Brown said. “I honestly thought for a moment a car was going to come through from in back of us. It sounded like it hit the stall I was in…. I could feel it. I thought I heard someone yell ‘No, no, no, get out of the way.’ You could tell there was a runaway vehicle of some sort because there was yelling.”
While the golf cart was reported to have been damaged, there were no reported injuries.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.