Smith to ride Yoshida in Breeders' Cup Classic

ARCADIA, Calif. – The decision on Thursday to run Omaha Beach in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile meant that his jockey, Mike Smith, needed to find mounts in both the Classic and the Sprint on Nov. 2. One of those was immediately accomplished, and the irony is rich.

Smith picked up the mount on Yoshida for the Classic, essentially swapping mounts with Joel Rosario, who had ridden Yoshida in his last two starts but is replacing Smith on McKinzie for the $6 million Classic at Santa Anita.

Both Smith’s agent, Brad Pegram, and Bill Mott, the trainer of Yoshida, confirmed the news.

Mott and Smith have had great success over the years together, particularly when Smith was based in New York, but they have not joined forces much over the past year.

“I’ve had him on days for what he did to Elate,” Mott said, referring to when Smith, aboard Abel Tasman, narrowly defeated Elate and then survived an inquiry in the Personal Ensign at Saratoga in August 2018.

Yoshida most recently was third in the Woodward at Saratoga. He has remained at Saratoga to train, but is scheduled to fly to California on Sunday and will have his final Breeders’ Cup work at Santa Anita, Mott said.

McKinzie was second most recently to Mongolian Groom in the Awesome Again, after which his trainer, Bob Baffert, said a change in riders would be made. Rosario was announced as McKinzie’s rider last week.