The Sept. 1 $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course was always on the calendar for Arthur’s Ride .
It was the Whitney Stakes (G1) that was the audible which resulted in a touchdown.
Jumping from a 12 3/4-length score in a mile-and-a-quarter allowance optional claimer at Saratoga to the Whitney Aug. 3 at the Spa, Glassman Racing’s son of Tapit got to the front and kept motoring until he crossed the wire 2 1/4 lengths ahead of Crupi on a muddy track and turned the older dirt male division upside down.
Now comes the original target, the Jockey Club Gold Cup at a 1 1/4-mile distance that seems ideal for the long-winded speedster who was bred by Helen and Joseph Barbazon and the Tapit Syndicate.
A victory on the final weekend of the Saratoga meet would make Arthur’s Ride the first winner of the Whitney and Jockey Club Gold Cup in the same year since Colonial Affair in 1994.
“We always thought he had the possibility to be a good horse and he showed it in the Whitney,” trainer Bill Mott said. “We just hope he can reproduce that race in the Gold Cup.”
The Whitney capped a string of five races for Arthur’s Ride that featured four wins. The Whitney marked the stakes debut for the son of the Point Given mare Points of Grace and the only glitch in the stretch that dates back to Feb. 11, 2023, was a ninth on a sloppy, sealed track May 3 at Churchill Downs.
The Jockey Club Gold Cup is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series and will award the winner an automatic, fees-paid berth to the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) at Del Mar. Yet that’s not a concern for Arthur’s Ride, who already collected a starting spot for taking the Whitney, another Challenge Series race, and will point to the $7 million Classic if all goes fine Sunday.
“We’ve got the entry fees paid so the Breeders’ Cup is a definite consideration,” Mott said, a four-time Jockey Club Gold Cup winner.
Bought for $250,000 by agent Donato Lanni from the Gainesway consignment at the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Arthur’s Ride has earned $764,955.
Todd Pletcher will send out the duo of Bright Future and Tapit Trice in a bid for back-to-back wins in the 106th edition of the JC Gold Cup.
Repole Stable and St. Elias Stables’ Bright Future prevailed in the 2023 Gold Cup then finished sixth in the 1 1/4-mile Breeders’ Cup Classic.
He started 2024 with a victory in the June 15 Salvator Mile Stakes (G3) at Monmouth Park but then checked in eighth on the wet track in the Whitney. Pletcher said he will put blinkers on the 5-year-old son of Curlin for Sunday’s race.
“Bright Future won this race last year but didn’t fire in the Whitney. (Jockey Javier Castellano) seemed to think he didn’t handle the track,” Pletcher said. “He came back with some nice breezes. Hopefully we can catch a fast track and he can get back to his performance from last year. He seems a little more focused with the blinkers.”
Whisper Hill Farm and Gainesway Stable’s Tapit Trice was one of the top 3-year-olds in 2023 as he won the Blue Grass Stakes (G1) and finished third in both the Belmont Stakes (G1) and Travers Stakes (G1).
The son of Tapit returned from an 11-month hiatus with a 5 1/4-length victory in the Monmouth Cup Stakes (G3).
“I was very happy with Tapit Trice’s comeback win at Monmouth and he is training exceptionally well for this,” said Pletcher, who is seeking a third Jockey Club Gold Cup win. “The mile and a quarter should suit him.”
The field of seven also includes Blue Heaven Farm’s homebred Pyrenees , a son of Into Mischief who was second in the Stephen Foster Stakes (G1) at Churchill Downs and won the Pimlico Special Stakes (G3) in his last two starts for trainer Cherie DeVaux.
Entries: Jockey Club Gold Cup S. (G1)
Saratoga Race Course, Sunday, September 01, 2024, Race 12
- Grade I
- 1 1/4m
- Dirt
- $1,000,000
- 3 yo’s & up
- 6:15 PM (local)