Nearing 5,000th win, Pletcher targeting his first JC Gold Cup

ELMONT, N.Y. – As he closes in on becoming just the eighth Thoroughbred trainer to reach the 5,000-win plateau, Todd Pletcher says the milestone will conjure memories of victories large and small.

In New York, where he has been based for 25 years, Pletcher has won virtually every big race offered on this circuit.

The one glaring omission is the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup, the signature dirt race of the Belmont Park fall meet. Since 2002, Pletcher has participated in 15 runnings of the Gold Cup with 23 starters. He has a remarkable seven second-place finishes. Last year, it appeared as though he had finally achieved a Gold Cup victory only to have it taken away by the stewards, who deemed that Vino Rosso interfered enough with Code of Honor in the stretch to result in a disqualification.

“The Jockey Club Gold Cup has been rough on me,” said Pletcher, who through Tuesday had won 4,985 races.

Undeterred, Pletcher will be back in the Gold Cup for the 10th straight year Saturday, when he sends out Happy Saver against Tacitus and three others in the 1 1/4-mile dirt race. Happy Saver, a son of Pletcher’s 2010 Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver, is undefeated in three starts and will be making his graded stakes debut. He will break from the rail under Irad Ortiz Jr.

Pletcher had the option of running Happy Saver in last Saturday’s $1 million Preakness Stakes, but felt the shorter field of the Gold Cup made more sense.

“Handicapping the two races, the size of the two fields and the additional week, all of those things I felt like were in his favor,” Pletcher said. “He’s still pretty lightly raced, light on experience. Concerned about a big field. Obviously, he’s giving up experience no matter where he was to go. We just felt like it might be a little easier to overcome in a smaller field.”

Happy Saver didn’t debut until June 20, on the same card that Tiz the Law won the Belmont Stakes. In his sevenfurlong race, Happy Saver scored a 5 1/2-length victory after pressing an honest early pace.

“He’s one that flew under the radar a little bit until we started getting serious with his breezes, and all of a sudden we were like, ‘This horse is breezing with some good horses and holding his own,’ ” Pletcher said. “So, we were optimistic going into his debut that he would run well. The thing that surprised me was how much speed he showed. It seemed like the one thing he hadn’t really showed in some of his breezes was quickness from the gate.”

Happy Saver followed that victory with an allowance win going 1 1/8 miles at Saratoga. The Federico Tesio at Laurel on Sept. 5 seemed like an easy spot to make his stakes debut. Happy Saver may have had to work harder than anticipated to run down Monday Morning Qb, but he got the job done by 1 1/4 lengths under Trevor McCarthy.

“The horse he was chasing had solid form and he was laying down some relatively soft fractions, so he had to go to work a little earlier to make sure that horse didn’t sneak away,” Pletcher said. “Those two horses were pretty well clear of the rest of the group, plus he’s one of those who tends to idle once he gets there.”

For Pletcher to score his first win in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Happy Saver will have to defeat the older horse Tacitus, dominant winner of the Grade 2 Suburban here in July; Mystic Guide, a fellow 3-year-old who won the Jim Dandy at Saratoga last month; Prioritize, third in the Grade 1 Woodward; and Name Changer, winner of the 2018 Queens County Stakes at Aqueduct.

Pletcher would certainly like to add a Jockey Club Gold Cup to a résumé that consists of 676 graded stakes victories, including two Kentucky Derbies, three Belmont Stakes, and 11 Breeders’ Cup races. While he is eighth alltime in career victories, his $395 million in purse money won ranks him first. He becomes eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame in 2021.

“It takes a long time to build up that many wins,” Pletcher, 53, said of nearing 5,000 career victories. “When you reach those milestones, it makes you appreciate all the wins, and certainly there’s going to be big ones that stand out, but it also emphasizes the importance of all the horses, all the wins. Sometimes, what might not appear to be an important one to the general public might be one that’s important to you for personal reasons.”

The Gold Cup, which offers a fees-paid berth into the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 7 at Keeneland, is one of four Grade 1 stakes and five stakes overall on Saturday’s 11-race program. There also will be a mandatory payout in the Empire 6, which began the week with a $352,831 carryover.

The Champagne (race 4) and Frizette (race 5) will not be part of the Empire 6 sequence.

In Saturday’s other stakes:

◗ Jackie’s Warrior and Reinvestment Risk, the 1-2 finishers in the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga, head a six-horse field entered in the Grade 1, $250,000 Champagne, a Win and You’re In race for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

◗Vequist, the Grade 1 Spin away winner; Day out of the office, the Grade 3 Schuyler ville winner; and Cantata, a 10 1/4-length debut winner at Saratoga; top a seven-horse field entered in the Grade 1, $250,000 Frizette, a Win and You’re In race for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

◗ Trainer Chad Brown has rerouted Sister charlie to the Grade 1, $600,000 E.P. Taylor on Oct. 18 at Woodbine, but still entered three of the seven in the Grade 1, $250,000 Flower Bowl. They are My Sister Nat, winner of the Grade 3 Waya Stakes; twotime Grade 1 winner Cambier Parc; and four-time stakes winner Nay Lady Nay.

Civil Union, a winner of three straight, will likely go favored for trainer Shug McGaughey.

◗Speak tome of summer, winner of the Grade 2 Lake Placid; and Selflessly, winner of the Grade 3 Lake George; head a field of eight entered in the Grade 2, $150,000 Sands Point for 3-year-old fillies going a mile on turf.