United may prove one to catch

When he loses, which has not occurred very often in the last year, United tends to keep it close.

A 5-year-old gelding, United was beaten a head by eventual Horse of the Year Bricks and Mortar in the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita last November as a 51-1 outsider. A month later, United was second by a neck in the Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup at Del Mar.

This year, United’s campaign has been geared toward the BC Turf on Nov. 7 at Keeneland. He will start with a near-perfect record in five starts this year – four wins in Grade 2 races at Santa Anita and Del Mar, and a second by a head in the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap on Aug. 22.

United, trained by Richard Mandella for Larry, Nancy, and Jaime Roth’s LNJ Foxwoods stable, is one of the leading domestic hopes for the BC Turf.

The problem is the Europeans may send a deep team.

Foreign candidates for the BC Turf may include Enable, a 14-time stakes winner who won the 2018 BC Turf at Churchill Downs but was sixth on heavy turf in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp Racecourse on Sunday in Paris; Love, the 3-year-old filly who has won three consecutive Grade 1 races and did not start in the Arc; and Magical and Ghaiyyath, the first two finishers of the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown Racecourse in Ireland on Sept. 12.

Sottsass, upset winner of the Arc, was retired earlier this week.

The European group will be better known after the Group 1 Champion Stakes on Oct. 17 at Ascot.

Aside from United, other Americanbased hopefuls include Channel Maker, who won the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont Park last Saturday while setting a slow pace, and Arklow, winner of the Grade 3 Kentucky Turf Cup on Sept. 12 at Kentucky Downs. Arklow and Channel Maker were eighth and 12th in the 2019 BC Turf.

Regardless of the composition of the field, United may be the horse to catch. In most of his 16-race career, United has stalked the pace or closed from well behind the early leaders. In the Grade 2 John Henry

Turf Championship at 1 1/4 miles on turf Sept. 26 at Santa Anita, United led throughout, setting a modest pace before prevailing by 1 1/2 lengths as the odds-on favorite.

In his third year of racing, United may have found a new running style.

“We realize we have options,” Mandella said.

In the Del Mar Handicap at 1 3/8 miles on turf, United was fifth on the backstretch, racing on the inside. Jockey Flavien Prat maneuvered United into the clear turning into the stretch and United closed well to finish a head behind Red King, who earned a fees-paid berth to the BC Turf with an upset win.

“We actually thought of going to the lead in the Del Mar Handicap and we wished we had after what happened,” Mandella said. “It was interesting to see what he would do on the lead.”