SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Approaching the quarter pole of Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Whitney Stakes at Saratoga, Flavien Prat had swung Sierra Leone into the six-path. There were still four horses the 3-year-old champion of 2024 had to catch, a group that included millionaire earners Skippylongstocking, Fierceness, Highland Falls and White Abarrio.
Sierra Leone, caked in mud from head to chest, his jockey Prat also bathed in dirt, had more work to do and over a main track on which he had failed to win in three starts as a 3-year-old.
But the 4-year-old version of Sierra Leone is a different animal. And in the final three-sixteenths of a mile Sierra Leone’s late kick carried him past the quartet of graded stakes winners to win the Whitney and put himself back in the mix for a repeat bid in the Breeders’ Cup Classic in November.
Sierra Leone beat Highland Falls - the 2024 Jockey Club Gold Cup winner - by one length. It was another two lengths to longshot Disarm, who was a length in front of White Abarrio. Fierceness, the 6-5 Whitney favorite who had beaten Sierra Leone twice over this track last year in the Travers and Jim Dandy, retreated to fifth. He was followed by Post Time, Skippylongstocking, Mama’s Gold and Contrary Thinking. Mindframe, as expected, scratched.
The victory was the first in three starts this year for Sierra Leone, who won last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic to clinch the Eclipse Award as the 3-year-old champion male. The Whitney earned Sierra Leone a fees-paid berth into this year’s $7 million Classic to be run Nov. 1 at Del Mar, which could shape up to be one of the deepest editions ever of that race.
“This is no walk in the park to get back and defend the Breeders’ Cup Classic when you add horses like Mindframe and these 3-year-olds like Journalism and Sovereignty,” trainer Chad Brown said. “There's always top-level fresh horses with top connections.”
In June, Sierra Leone lost his meeting with Mindframe in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs. That was Sierra Leone’s second start of the year, coming after a seemingly dull third in the New Orleans Classic.
But Brown felt those two races and his subsequent training had Sierra Leone prepared for a peak performance against a field that included six other millionaires who had a combined 23 graded stakes.
Fierceness was the favorite based on his 3-for-4 record at Saratoga, his track-record-setting 4-year-old debut in the Alysheba Stakes at Churchill in May, and his runner-up finish in the muddy Metropolitan Handicap.
Sierra Leone, a stone-cold closer, got some pace assistance from Contrary Thinking, a horse purchased by Peter Brant, co-owner of Sierra Leone, after having previously raced for Seth Klarman. He was in there to ensure a fast pace and, despite getting away slowly, Dylan Davis rushed him up to join the pacesetter Mama’s Gold.
Sierra Leone actually broke well and had two horses beat going into the first turn before Prat let him drop back to last.
“I was very pleased the way he got out of the gate,” Prat said. “Even if I’m in the back at least he broke running. I was traveling well all the way around.”
Fierceness also appeared to be traveling well as he was third, but perhaps farther back than John Velazquez wanted him, down the backside. Several horses moved at the same time, most notably Skippylongstocking, who made an aggressive move toward the lead around the far turn.
Fierceness took the lead from Skippylongstocking at the head of the lane and looked like he still had something left. But in midstretch he stalled and Highland Falls, under Luis Saez, and White Abarrio, under Irad Ortiz Jr. were passing him. But Sierra Leone lengthened his stride and passed them all, getting by Highland Falls inside the sixteenth pole to get to the wire first.
“He’s a fully-rounded, fully-polished fine-tuned, high-level racehorse now,” said Brown, who won his first Whitney in his fifth try. “What we know about the horse now is he’s a long, outside-run horse like he did in the Breeders’ Cup and in the [Kentucky] Derby and nearly won. For him to cut the corner and catch a lot of dirt _ it’s not his preferred way to pass horses - for him to do that and make up considerable ground and then get out with blinkers full of mud and dirt and get there, really remarkable run by him. Lot of heart.”
Sierra Leone, a son of Gun Runner who sold for $2.3 million at the 2022 Saratoga yearling sales, covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.92 and returned $5.90 as the second choice. Sierra Leone earned a 109 Beyer Speed Figure for the performance. He improved his record to 5-4-3 from 12 starts and increased his earnings to $6,806,200.
“I didn’t know when I hit the three-eighths pole if I had a ton of horse or not,” Prat said. “When I cut the corner, he came underneath me nicely. When I tipped him out he gave me a very good run.”
Brown, who won four races on Saturday’s card, said if Sierra Leone comes out of the race in good order he would point him to the Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup here on Aug. 31.
There, he will likely meet Mindframe again, but he will also likely face Highland Falls, last year’s Jockey Club Gold Cup winner who returned to form Saturday. Saez said when Skippylongstocking made his early move, it put Highland Falls in between horses and tightened things up. Still, he forged his way to the lead in deep stretch and was just second-best on the day.
“It was a little tight, I got a little contact, he tried, he battled, that horse fight, just the winner got the jump,” Saez said.
As for Fierceness, Velazquez said he had some contact at the three-eighths pole and that prompted his horse to get back into the bridle and make the lead a little too soon. He was beaten 5 3/4 lengths.
*** NYRA reported a record handle for a Whitney Day card with $49,651,341 being wagered on the 13-race program. That is a 22.7 percent increase over the previous record of $40,461,888 handled in 2022, when there was a 12-race card.
The paid crowd Saturday was 42,316. The record Whitney paid crowd was 43,788 in 2023.
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