ARCADIA, Calif. – It’s showtime Saturday at Santa Anita for Full Serrano and First Mission, who waited all season to run in a race like the Grade 1 Goodwood Stakes.
Full Serrano, the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner who missed most of 2025, meets First Mission, the $2 million earner who is missing an important element from his résumé – a Grade 1 win.
Full Serrano and First Mission tower over the 1 1/8-mile Goodwood, a Win and You’re In for the Breeders’ Cup Classic and the headline race on a card with Breeders’ Cup ramifications across several divisions.
BC Mile candidate Johannes runs in the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile, race 4; BC Turf candidate Gold Phoenix faces Stay Hot in the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship, race 6; and BC Turf Sprint candidate Reef Runner meets Beyond Brilliant in the Grade 2 Eddie D, race 8. The Goodwood is race 9; the John C. Harris Stakes for 3-year-old fillies is race 10.
Saturday's card begins with a $28,474 carryover in the $2 pick six (races 5-10) after the wager went unsolved Friday. There also is a $12,707 carryover in the Sunset Six, a new wager that links the final three races at Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita, after there were no perfect tickets for that bet Friday.
Seven are entered in the Goodwood, including Grade 1 winners Express Train and Gaming, Grade 1-placed Ultimate Gamble, stakes winner Nevada Beach, and allowance winner Privman. Full Serrano and First Mission stand out.
John Sadler trains Full Serrano, an Argentine whose three-start U.S. campaign last year culminated with a highly rated victory in the BC Dirt Mile. The sky was the limit, and winter options included the Pegasus World Cup and Saudi Cup. Instead, Full Serrano was sidelined.
“He had an injury, we had to take care of it, gave him time, and that’s it,” Sadler said, declining specificity. “We wanted to give him all the time he needed. We were extra cautious.”
Sadler and owner Hronis Racing hoped Full Serrano would make the Pacific Classic in which he finished second last year. The calendar was against him.
“The timing was kind of awkward, he wasn’t quite going to be ready,” Sadler said. “We never felt there was any rush.”
Full Serrano returned Sept. 1 in a Del Mar allowance route. He wired a modest field by more than seven lengths and has trained well since. Full Serrano seems right where he was a year ago. If he runs well Saturday under jockey Juan Hernandez, it’s on to the Breeders’ Cup. Which race?
“He’s more likely for the Dirt Mile, but the Classic is not off the table,” Sadler said. “You’ve got to see who’s where.”
The top Classic candidates already completed their preps – Sovereignty, Sierra Leone, Fierceness, Mindframe, Journalism, Antiquarian, and Baeza.
First Mission, trained by Brad Cox, arrived Wednesday from Kentucky with four graded wins.
“Probably the only thing missing on his résumé is a Grade 1,” Cox noted. “We’ve always thought he was a Grade 1 talent. He’s had opportunities, they just didn’t turn out as we needed them to.”
The best finish by First Mission in four Grade 1s was a third in the Stephen Foster in June at Churchill Downs. First Mission subsequently finished second at odds-on in the Grade 3 Philip H. Iselin at Monmouth Park, without an alibi.
First Mission will try to replicate Cox-trained Highland Falls, who lost a Monmouth stakes at odds-on last year and crushed the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold in his next start.
Cox expects a top effort from First Mission.
“He’s trained really well,” Cox said. “I think he’s going to run a big race. I’m very excited about bringing him out there. It’s a very important race for him, and the Godolphin team, if he could pull off a Grade 1.”
First Mission’s rider is Paco Lopez, whose status was uncertain midweek after being levied a six-month suspension. First Mission breaks from post 4 on Saturday. His late-fall campaign is to be determined. Cox downplayed the BC Classic, which is coming up tough.
Express Train, 2022 Santa Anita Handicap winner, is rounding into form. He rushed and faded in his July comeback, after which trainer John Shirreffs shortened him to seven furlongs for Grade 2 Pat O’Brien at Del Mar. He finished third by one length.
“That’s going to set him up really well for here,” Shirreffs said. “These sprints kind of get these routers a little more engaged, a little wake-up call.”
Hector Berrios rides Express Train for Shirreffs and owners Lee and Susan Searing. The connections won the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby last weekend with Baeza.
Bob Baffert entered three – Gaming, Privman, and Nevada Beach. Gaming, a Grade 1 winner at 2, was beaten more than 14 lengths last out in a minor stakes at Del Mar.
“He’s a quirky kind of horse, I think I have him figured out,” Baffert said.
Lightly raced Privman is 2 for 2 routing, including an entry-level allowance last out. Nevada Beach makes his first start since winning the Los Alamitos Derby in late June. Ultimate Gamble finished third last out in the Pacific Classic.
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