Eight Millionaires Among Star-Studded Cast For G1 Whitney

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A star-studded cast featuring champions Fierceness and Sierra Leone and a sextet of fellow millionaires led by four-time Grade 1 winner White Abarrio are set to line up for the 98th running of Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Whitney at Saratoga Race Course.

The 1 1/8-mile Whitney for 4-year-olds and up, a “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic November 1 at Del Mar, serves as the headliner on a 13-race program that includes five graded-stakes worth $3.2 million in purses.

Derrick Smith, Repole Stable, Michael B. Tabor, and Mrs. John Magnier’s Fierceness, the Champion 2-Year-Old Colt of 2023, had his perfect record over Saratoga’s main track ended in the Grade 1 Hill ‘n’ Dale Metropolitan Handicap on June 7. Prior to that, he had won three times at the Spa, highlighted by the Grade 2 Jim Dandy and Grade 1 DraftKings Travers last summer.

 Fierceness encountered some early trouble in the Met Mile, contested out of the Wilson Chute, and pressed the pace but had to settle for second as the favorite behind Raging Torrent, who was retired in July with a leg injury.

“He was second-best on the day,” Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher said. “The way it unfolded he had a bit of a rough start from the inside draw. We had some concerns about the Wilson Chute to begin with but, in all fairness, Raging Torrent ran a good race. We just regroup and get back around two turns and look forward to running him the way he’s been training.”

Second to Sierra Leone in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Fierceness won the Grade 2 Alysheba May 2 in track-record fashion at Churchill Downs in his only other start this year. Hall of Famer John Velazquez is named to ride Fierceness from post 9 in the field of 10.

Pletcher also entered Repole and St. Elias Stable’s Mindframe, a winner of his last three starts. After capturing the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile March 1 in his return from more than seven months away, the 4-year-old Constitution colt won the Grade 1 Churchill Downs sprinting seven furlongs and Grade 1 Stephen Foster going 1 1/8 miles, the latter June 28.

Although Pletcher entered both horses, the veteran conditioner noted that he did so with the intent to run one horse.

Pletcher is a four-time winner of the Whitney, finding previous success with Left Bank [2002], Lawyer Ron [2007], Cross Traffic [2013] and Life Is Good [2022].

Peter Brant, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg and Brook Smith’s Sierra Leone is searching for his first win in three starts this year after finishing third in the Grade 2 New Orleans Classic and second by one length in the Stephen Foster. Beaten a nose in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby last spring, he also finished behind Dornoch and Mindframe in the Belmont and Fierceness in the Jim Dandy and Travers prior to his Breeders’ Cup Classic triumph.

Gary Barber, C2 Racing Stable and La Milagrosa Stable’s White Abarrio is the richest of the Whitney participants with more than $7 million in purse earnings from 22 starts, 10 of them wins, including a 6 1/4-length romp in the 2023 Whitney for previous trainer Rick Dutrow, Jr. Now back with Saffie Joseph, Jr., the 6-year-old son of Race Day won the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup and Grade 3 Ghostzapper at Gulfstream Park to open 2025 but most recently finished a troubled fourth in the Met Mile.

Joseph, Jr. has another entrant in Daniel Alonso’s well-traveled 6-year-old Skippylongstocking, an 11-time winner that comes out of a popular three-quarter-length victory in the Grade 2 Hollywood Gold Cup May 26 at Santa Anita, his first time going 1 1/4 miles. A veteran of 15 different racetracks in 32 starts, Skippylongstocking prompted the pace in last year’s Whitney before tiring to be fifth behind Arthur’s Ride.

Also returning from last year’s Whitney is Hillwood Stable’s Post Time, who ran third at odds of 25-1 for Maryland-based trainer Brittany Russell. By 2016 Whitney winner Frosted, the 5-year-old Post Time ran second in last year’s Met Mile and has never been worse than third in 18 starts, 11 of them wins including the 2024 Grade 2 Carter presented by NYRA Bets at Aqueduct.

 Second in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and third in the Grade 2 Cigar Mile presented by TwinSpires.com to cap last year’s campaign, Post Time has two wins in three starts this year. Third, beaten 1 1/4 lengths by 2024 Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan in the Grade 3 Blame May 31 at Churchill Downs, he scored a popular 3 1/2-length victory in the 1 1/8-mile Deputed Testamony June 28 at Laurel Park last time out.

Highland Falls, a 5-year-old homebred of Hall of Famer Curlin, will represent Godolphin Stable and trainer Brad Cox in the Whitney. Highland Falls won three times last year including his only prior run at Saratoga in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup, before being defeated in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. He launched his 2025 campaign with a 5 1/2-length optional claiming allowance triumph going one mile June 27 at Belmont at the Big A.

Completing the Whitney field are Winchell Thoroughbreds’ $1.4 million earner Disarm [Joel Rosario, post 6, 120 pounds, bar shoes OFF], runner-up in the 2023 Travers and third in last year’s Jockey Club Gold Cup for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen; and Jonathan Hardoon’s Mama’s Gold [Romero Maragh, post 4, 120 pounds], most recently second in the 1 1/8-mile Commentator for New York-breds July 4 at Saratoga for conditioner James Ferraro.