On to Breeders’ Cup for Max Player

George Hall and Sport BLX Thoroughbreds' Max Player (Honor Code) will train up to the Nov. 6 GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar following his win in Saturday's GI Jockey Club Gold Cup, trainer Steve Asmussen confirmed Sunday.

“Max Player is better than he's ever been and physically he's developed into this,” Asmussen said. “There's more of him. He's a horse that's continued to grow, fill out and mature. There's a lot more of Max Player as a 4-year-old than there was as a 3-year-old. He's bigger and stronger. His next race will be the Breeders' Cup Classic.”

When Del Mar last hosted the Breeders' Cup in 2017, Asmussen was represented by Classic winner Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}) and he plans to follow a similar schedule ahead of this year's championship weekend with Max Player.

“We just want to acclimate them to West Coast time,” Asmussen said. “For previous Breeders' Cups in California, we like to get out there and be on Pacific Coast time and I think we've gotten solid runs doing that, so we're planning on doing the same this time. Last time the Breeders' Cup was at Del Mar, we had Gun Runner. He went out and trained at Santa Anita before going to Del Mar.”

Also expected to train up to the Breeders' Cup Classic is Wertheimer and Frere's Happy Saver (Super Saver), who was second while attempting to defend his title in Saturday's Jockey Club Gold Cup for trainer Todd Pletcher.

“There wasn't a lot of pace and he was sort of bottled up. He was wanting to advance, but didn't really get the opportunity until it was too late. The winner was very good and he got the jump on him,” Pletcher said of the Gold Cup result. “I was happy with his performance and he closed well, which is probably a little better suited to a race where there's more pace and everybody spreads out a little more. He got a good trip, but it was behind the wrong pace scenario. He came back in good shape.”

Pletcher also saddled Bass Racing's Annapolis (War Front) to a 'TDN Rising Star' debut over the turf at Saratoga Saturday.

“I was very pleased with him. He trained well into it and delivered the type of performance we were hoping for,” Pletcher said. “The race was slow to develop and the early fractions weren't really fast, but I liked the way he picked it up around the turn. He finished strongly and galloped out well.”

Pletcher said the colt, a son of graded stakes winner My Miss Sophia (Unbridled's Song), would likely make his next start in the Oct. 3 GII Pilgrim S. over the Belmont lawn, but he did not rule out eventually starting the colt over the dirt.

“At this stage, he's shown us he's a little better on the turf, but he's a big, strong colt,” Pletcher said. “Obviously the mare was second in the Kentucky Oaks, but sometimes these type of horses, as they mature, they get better on the dirt, but for now we'll stay focused on the turf.”

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Max Player Earns 102 Beyer Speed Figure For Gold Cup Win, Will Train Up To BC Classic

After garnering his first Grade 1 conquest in Saturday's $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., George E. Hall and Sport BLX Thoroughbreds' Max Player will train up to the $6 million Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Classic on November 6 at Del Mar, Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen said.

The victory was a second consecutive graded stakes win at 10 furlongs for Max Player, who earned a career-best 102 Beyer Speed Figure for the win. He previously defeated Group 1 Dubai World Cup winner Mystic Guide in the Grade 2 Suburban on July 3 over a sloppy and sealed track at Belmont Park. Ricardo Santana, Jr. piloted the 4-year-old for both races.

Asmussen said Max Player has shown considerable physical improvement from his sophomore season, where he finished third to Tiz the Law in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes and Grade 1 Runhappy Travers.

“Max Player is better than he's ever been and physically he's developed into this. His next race will be the Breeders' Cup Classic,” Asmussen said. “There's more of him. He's a horse that's continued to grow, fill out and mature. There's a lot more of Max Player as a 4-year-old than there was as a 3-year-old. He's bigger and stronger.”

The last time Del Mar hosted the Breeders' Cup in 2017, Asmussen won the Classic with subsequent Horse of the Year Gun Runner. In preparation for this year's Breeders' Cup, Asmussen said he plans on shipping Max Player to California early to prepare for his next engagement.

“We just want to acclimate them to West Coast time,” Asmussen said. “For previous Breeders' Cups in California, we like to get out there and be on Pacific Coast time and I think we've gotten solid runs doing that, so we're planning on doing the same this time. Last time the Breeders' Cup was at Del Mar, we had Gun Runner. He went out and trained at Santa Anita before going to Del Mar.”

Asmussen found the winner's circle in four of the last six editions of the Breeders' Cup hosted in California, winning with Mitole [2019 Sprint at Santa Anita], Gun Runner [2017 Classic at Del Mar], Untapable [2014 Distaff at Santa Anita], and Tapizar [2012 Dirt Mile at Santa Anita].

Co-owner George E. Hall said he was equally delighted to see his horse secure a Grade 1 victory.

“You have to give all the credit to Steve and Ricardo,” Hall said at the Asmussen barn on Sunday morning. “I think having Ricardo on him consistently now; he knows the horse and Steve knows what instructions to give him. He just has to stay with the pace. He can't get so far behind and have too much ground to make up.”

Hall echoed similar sentiments to Asmussen in terms of Max Player's physical development from age three to four.

“You look at his record, he didn't have a lot of wins, but there was no shame in losing to Tiz the Law and Authentic,” Hall said. “Those were great horses. He's still maturing as a 4-year-old and we're pretty excited about his prospects.”

A three-time Grade 1-winner this meet, Asmussen could add to his ledger with Echo Zulu in the Grade 1 Spinaway as well as Gunite in the Grade 1 Hopeful on Closing Day Monday.

A 2-year-old son of Gun Runner, Gunite was a last out second in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special on August 14.

“He's run faster in every one of his races and I expect that to continue,” Asmussen said.

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Max Player Scores Second BC Classic Spot With Gold Cup Victory

Max Player followed up his last-out neck victory in the Grade 2 Suburban with a dominating win over five others in the 1 1/4-mile Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.  Under jockey Ricardo Santana, Jr., the 4-year-old Honor Code colt earns a second berth in the Breeders' Cup Classic.

The field of six broke cleanly, with Forza Di Oro, seeking his first Grade 1 win, taking a short lead as Max Player and Santana stalked him on the outside. Around the first turn, Forza Di Oro stretched his lead out to a length, but, after fractions of :24.05 for the first quarter and :48.70 for the first half-mile, Max Player began to press the leader, shortening the margin between them to a neck. Into the far turn, Forza Di Oro was still neck to the good, with Max Player and Happy Saver poised to challenge on the outside.

In the stretch, Max Player pulled even with Forza Di Oro, but the former leader began to tire as Santana asked Max Player to go, easily taking over the lead in the race's final furlongs. The margin of victory was six lengths, Happy Saver passing Forza Di Oro in the final yards to take over second. Night Ops was fourth, with Chess Chief and Forewarned rounding out the field.

The final time for the 1 1/4 miles was 2:02.49 over a fast track. Find this race's chart here.

Max Player paid $9.60, $4.70, and $2.60. Happy Saver paid $3.80 and $2.20. Forza Di Oro paid $2.10 to show.

The G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup, new to Saratoga for 2021, is part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge series. The winner gets a fees-paid guaranteed spot in the starting gate for the corresponding race at the Breeders' Cup World Championships, to be held Nov. 6 at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif.

“It was beautiful. Max, in the [Grade 1] Suburban [victory], ran that race under different circumstances on an off track. For him to do this on a fast track in the Jockey Club Gold Cup here at Saratoga, it is very satisfying. This is who he is, and I thought it was a dominating win,” trainer Steve Asmussen said after the race.

“I was happy with him,” Santana told the NYRA Press Office after the Gold Cup. “Today, he broke good, so I was really happy with it. The trainer is doing all the [work].”

Bred in Kentucky by K and G Stables, Max Player is out of the Not For Love mare Fools In Love, a black-type stakes winner. Owned by George Hall and SportBLX Thoroughbreds, the 4-year-old was a $150,000 RNA consigned by Lane's End at the 2018 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The victory in the Jockey Club Gold Cup is Max Player's second win in four starts in 2021 for a lifetime record of four wins in 10 starts.

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Max Player Powers Clear in Jockey Club Gold Cup

George Hall and SportBLX's Max Player (Honor Code) proved his bounce-back GII Suburban S. score in July was no fluke as he again showed more speed and pulled away to an emphatic victory in the repositioned GI Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga. A fringe player on last year's Triple Crown trail, the Steve Asmussen trainee has stamped himself as a legitimate GI Breeders' Cup Classic threat in two strong efforts at 10 furlongs, and earned an automatic berth into the year-end championship event Saturday as part of the “Win and You're In” series.

Scrubbed on by adept gate rider Ricardo Santana, Jr. from the blocks, 7-2 Max Player locked on to even-money Forza Di Oro (Speightstown) through a half in :48.70 and six panels in 1:13.14. The dark bay cranked up the pressure heading for home as last year's Jockey Club winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Happy Saver (Super Saver) loomed a threat just in behind. Forza Di Oro cut the corner and briefly looked like he might open back up, but Max Player hit his stride by midstretch and powered away from there, relishing the real estate, to post the four-length victory. Happy Saver picked off the chalk late for second.

“It was beautiful,” said Asmussen, who took this historic event in both 2007 and 2008 with fellow Hall of Famer Curlin and again in 2010 when it was contested at Belmont Park. “Max, in the Suburban, ran that race under different circumstances on an off track. For him to do this on a fast track in the Jockey Club Gold Cup here at Saratoga, it is very satisfying. This is who he is, and I thought it was a dominating win.”

Saturday, Saratoga
JOCKEY CLUB GOLD CUP S.-GI, $955,000, Saratoga, 9-4, 3yo/up, 1 1/4m, 2:02.49, ft.
1–MAX PLAYER, 126, c, 4, by Honor Code
                1st Dam: Fools in Love (SW, $240,746), by Not For Love
                2nd Dam: Parlez, by French Deputy
                3rd Dam: Speak Halory, by Verbatim
   1ST GRADE I WIN. ($150,000 RNA Ylg '18 KEESEP). O-George E.
Hall & SportBLX Thoroughbreds Corp.; B-K & G Stables (KY);
T-Steven M. Asmussen; J-Ricardo Santana, Jr. $535,000.
Lifetime Record: 11-4-1-2, $1,252,500. *1/2 to Seahenge (Scat
Daddy), GSW & G1SP-Eng, SP-Ire, $228,295; Urban Bourbon
(City Zip), GSP, $113,381. Werk Nick Rating: A+. Click for the
eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Happy Saver, 126, c, 4, Super Saver–Happy Week, by
Distorted Humor. 'TDN Rising Star' O/B-Wertheimer Et Frere
(KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher. $185,000.
3–Forza Di Oro, 126, c, 4, Speightstown–Filare l'Oro, by Hard
Spun. ($325,000 RNA Ylg '18 FTSAUG). O-Don Alberto Stable;
B-Don Alberto Corporation (KY); T-William I. Mott. $100,000.
Margins: 4, HF, HF. Odds: 3.80, 2.10, 1.10.
Also Ran: Night Ops, Chess Chief, Forewarned. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

“I was happy with him. Today, he broke good, so I was really happy with it. The trainer is doing all the [work],” said Asmussen's go-to rider Santana.

Overcoming a tendency to start slow in his early outings, Max Player finished fast to take the GIII Withers S. third out last February for then conditioner Linda Rice. He finished well-beaten thirds behind Tiz the Law (Constitution) in both the GI Belmont S. and track-and-trip GI Runhappy Travers S. over that summer, but was transferred to Asmussen ahead of a fifth-place GI Kentucky Derby run. Fifth in the GI Preakness S. in October, he was shelved until the lucrative Saudi Cup Feb. 20, but that long journey proved fruitless as he checked in a distant 11th.

He once again found himself too far back when sixth in the

GIII Pimlico Special S. May 14, but looked like a different horse from start to finish last time when belying 11-1 odds in defeating subsequently sidelined G1 Dubai World Cup hero Mystic Guide (Ghostzapper) in the July 3 Suburban over a sloppy track.

“I really thought we had a chance with him at Churchill [in the 2020 Kentucky Derby], the way he was training over the track,” Asmussen said. “He lost so much ground early in the race and then fought the dirt from where he was. He didn't even begin to level off until the last eighth of the race and still ended up fifth.

“He likes good spacing between his races. Ricardo has done a tremendous job of putting him into the race, so he can actually perform.

“We went back with him to the gate and started from a hand open, just to leave the gates. Ricardo did a tremendous amount of work with him there and knows the horse really well. It took some riding from Ricardo today in the first three or four jumps but immediately, when he got him going, 50 yards from the gate [I thought] 'you get your chance, I'm glad to see this.'

This has certainly been a meet to remember for Asmussen, who became the all-time winningest trainer in North America last month. He and Santana took both the GI Forego S. and GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S. a week ago, and have live chances in both the GI Spinaway S. and GI Hopeful S. during the final two days of the meet.

“It's been a dream meet. It really has,” he said. “With achieving the record here. With the fans coming back. With how it felt. At Saratoga–not only do you have fans–you have educated fans. They're aware of racing. To set the record here and this is the third Grade I win of the meet. It's been a dream meet and it will be beautiful to reflect on, but we have two Grade Is left before we're there.”

As for the beaten favorite, trainer Bill Mott said, “I'm disappointed that he didn't get the 10 furlongs. I just didn't think he had any excuse. We've got to see. There's another race; the [Oct. 2 GI] Woodward could be a possibility [at 1 1/8 miles], I suppose. But it's a little early to commit to anything.”

Pedigree Notes:

Sire Honor Code displayed his own affinity for the Spa, earning 'TDN Rising Star' status for a debut score on the closing Saturday card in 2013 before adding the GI Whitney S. here two years later. He has added a second and third highest-level winner to his CV as a stallion at the stand, having also been responsible for Santana-piloted GI Coaching Club American Oaks upsetter Maracuja. All three of his graded winners have won at the Grade I level, and he has seven stakes winners overall.

Dam Fools in Love was an $80,000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic yearling who racked up a sizable bankroll herself on the track, but has proven even more valuable in the breeding shed. The half-sister to MGISW International Star (Fusaichi Pegasus), from the deep family of Halory Hunter, Van Nistelrooy, et al, produced black-type earners with each of her first three foals, including $750,000 KEESEP yearling and Group 2-winning juvenile Seahenge (Scat Daddy). After foaling Max Player, Fools in Love was put in foal to Speightstown and brought $1 million from Cheveley Park Stud at KEENOV '17. She did not produce a foal in 2018, but is responsible for Ulysses (Ire) colts of 2019 and 2021 and a yearling filly by Frankel (GB).

Not For Love is the broodmare sire of four Grade I winners (10 graded and 63 black-type overall), including dual Horse of the Year California Chrome, a fellow A.P. Indy line product who sired his first graded winner on Saturday's card in GII Prioress S. heroine Cilla.

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