Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Sadler can build momentum
ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer John Sadler sent out his first Breeders’ Cup runner in 1988, when he was just 32 years old, and even though he lost that year with the sprinter Olympic Prospect, he had to figure that first win would come soon.
It didn’t. Over the years, Sadler kept trying, and kept coming up short, sometimes agonizingly so, such as when Stellar Wind finished a close second in the Distaff in 2015. Last year, he had four runners, and the first three lost, including Catapult – his 44th Breeders’ Cup starter – getting nailed by Expert Eye in the final yards of the Mile. His prayers were not being answered.
And then it finally happened. Down to his last runner of the weekend at Churchill Downs, Accelerate captured the Classic to give Sadler his first Breeders’ Cup win. He had homered in the bottom of the ninth. After putting on a brave front when passed over previously, his name at long last was read when the envelope was opened.
“It felt like the Academy Award for me,” Sadler recalled recently at Santa Anita. “It wasn’t just any Breeders’ Cup race. It was the Breeders’ Cup Classic.”
Sadler returns to the Breeders’ Cup this year with five more chances to polish his ledger. Most significantly, he will try to win the Classic for the second straight year, this time with Higher Power, this year’s Pacific Classic winner. Only Bob Baffert has won the Classic in consecutive years with different horses.
Catalina Cruiser and Selcourt, both of whom disappointed last year at Churchill Downs, try anew this year on their home track, with Catalina Cruiser in the Sprint, and Selcourt in the Filly and Mare Sprint. Ollie’s Candy goes in the Distaff. That’s his foursome on Saturday. On Friday, Sadler sends out Encore, whom he hopes gets into the Juvenile Turf Sprint, his first preference. The Juvenile Turf is the fall-back race.
“A year later we’re back with more horses than last year,” Sadler said. “The horses are competitive. Life is good for me.
“I’m more worried about the stuff I can’t control,” said Sadler, a native of Southern California who has been dismayed by many decisions and developments on his home circuit this year.
Sadler, 63, has been a mainstay on this circuit for nearly four decades, with multiple training titles at Santa Anita, Del Mar, and the late Hollywood Park, and victories in major races like the Santa Anita Handicap, Santa Anita Derby, Pacific Classic, and Golden Shaheen in Dubai. His barn has emphasized quality over quantity in recent years, but he’s not a onetrick trainer. His Breeders’ Cup runners this year tick just about every box – young horse, older horses, male, female, sprinters, routers, turf, dirt.
Higher Power is one of several horses whom Sadler has improved after acquiring them after their careers began, similar to Stellar Wind – his first Eclipse Award winner – and more recently Gift Box, this year’s winner of the Santa Anita Handicap. Higher Power, age 4, was 3 for 9 lifetime, only had maiden and allowance wins to his credit, and had been well beaten in his only graded stakes try when he was purchased, like Stellar Wind and Gift Box, by Sadler’s primary clients, Kosta and Pete Hronis.
“He’s by Medaglia d’Oro, and they seem to get better with age, and we thought being able to get him out to longer distances would help him,” Sadler said. “A lot of horses can’t get a mile and a quarter. At the time McKinzie was going to be running back East. It left some of these big races out here open for months.”
Higher Power made his first start for Sadler in May in the Gold Cup at Santa Anita, finishing fifth, well behind stablemate Gift Box, who was second in the race to Vino Rosso. Three starts later, in only his second start at 1 1/4 miles – the distance of the Breeders’ Cup Classic – Higher Power romped in the Pacific Classic, winning by 5 1/4 lengths while earning a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 107.
“A lot of these Eastern horses can do well when they come to California because, other than going to Del Mar, they don’t have to ship,” Sadler said. “They have a chance to get good training on one surface.”
Owing to having the favorite in the Classic last year, Sadler knew his Breeders’ Cup record was going to be a major topic, and he handled the scrutiny well, pointing out that he had runners who had fired in previous years, only to come up just a bit short. But he admitted he’s “extremely pleased” not to have to answer the 0-fer questions this year. The label of “trainer with the most Breeders’ Cup starts without a win” has been passed to Christophe Clement.
“Even though we hadn’t won before, I felt good about how some of our horses ran,” Sadler said. “Catapult ran a great race last year, just got beat by a horse trained by Sir Michael Stoute [Expert Eye]. It wasn’t like he was a favorite and got beat. Ollie’s Candy this year, she could run a great race and still be second to Midnight Bisou. A lot of years you’re just in there against superior horses.”
And sometimes you just leave it up to a Higher Power.