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Jockey Club Gold Cup Winner Happy Saver Jumps To Fifth In NTRA Top 3-Year-Old Poll

When he surged up the rail and hit the finish line first in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup on October 10, Happy Saver inserted himself into the discussion of top tier contenders in the sophomore male division. Indeed, when the votes were tallied in the latest National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) Top 3-Year-Old Thoroughbred Poll, the son of Super Saver found himself among the elite.

Happy Saver bested a field that included such older foes as graded stakes winner Tacitus in the Jockey Club Gold Cup to give trainer Todd Pletcher his long-awaited first triumph in the storied race. That victory, which also marked the colt's first try against graded stakes company in four career starts, earned Happy Saver 174 points this week to move him into the fifth position. Following a debut victory on June 20 at Belmont Park, Happy Saver prevailed going two turns at Saratoga en route to a triumph in the Sept. 7 Federico Tesio Stakes at Laurel Park, ahead of his Jockey Club Gold Cup outing.

“What he's been able to accomplish you don't see very many other horses do,” Pletcher told the NYRA publicity team of Happy Saver. “He went from a seven-furlong maiden on June 20 to a mile and an eighth allowance at Saratoga, to a mile and an eighth stake at Laurel and came back to Belmont and then to win a Grade 1 going a mile and a quarter against older horses is something you don't see very often.”

Whether Happy Saver heads to the Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland on Nov. 7 is still to be determined. Should he end up in that starting gate, his list of challengers will likely include Kentucky Derby winner Authentic, who continues to hold the top spot in the 3-Year-Old Poll.

Authentic, who was beaten a neck by the filly Swiss Skydiver in the October 3 Preakness Stakes, earned 17 first-place votes and 342 points to hold onto the top spot for yet another week. Belmont and Travers Stakes winner Tiz the Law remains second with eight first-place votes and 328 points with Swiss Skydiver (12 first-place votes, 326 points) in third.

Grade 2 winner Art Collector (203 points) holds down the fourth position ahead of Happy Saver while Grade 1 winner Honor A. P., who has been retired to stud, drops one spot to sixth with 129 points.

Multiple Grade 1 winner Gamine (103 points) is seventh with Kentucky Oaks winner Shedaresthedevil and Max Player now tied for eighth with 80 points apiece. Grade 2 winner Mystic Guide, who was second in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, rounds out the top 10 with 57 points.

With sophomore runners taking the top two spots in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, the handicap division had no major shifts this week. Multiple Grade 1 winner Improbable remains out front in the NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll with 32 first-place votes and 365 points as the son of City Zip has won three straight top-level contests.

Champion Maximum Security, runner-up to Improbable in the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes on Sept. 26, is second with two first-place votes and 271 points. Tom's d'Etat (two first-place votes, 218 points) is third followed by Vekoma (one first-place vote, 202 points) and champion Monomoy Girl (191 points).

Multiple graded stakes winner By My Standards remains sixth with 147 points while Authentic (124 points) and Tiz the Law (117) rank seventh and eighth, respectively. Swiss Skydiver (104 points) and multiple Grade 1 winner Rushing Fall (71) complete the top ten.

The NTRA Top Thoroughbred polls are the sport's most comprehensive surveys of experts. Every week eligible journalists and broadcasters cast votes for their top 10 horses, with points awarded on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. All horses that have raced in the U.S., are in training in the U.S., or are known to be pointing to a major event in the U.S. are eligible for the NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll. Voting in both the Top Three-Year-Old Thoroughbred Poll and the Top Thoroughbred Poll is scheduled to be conducted through the conclusion of the Breeders' Cup in November.

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Magical Set To Defend Her Title In Saturday’s QIPCO Champion Stakes

The £750,000 (approximately US$885,866) QIPCO Champion Stakes held on Saturday, Oct. 17, will be the richest race in Great Britain this year and looks set to be the race of the season with Magical and Addeybb, who dominated the finish of last year's renewal, renewing old rivalries again.

Magical prevailed by three-quarters of a length 12 months ago, after which her trainer Aidan O'Brien intimated she had run her final race.

However, the daughter of Galileo was kept in training and the decision has been handsomely rewarded, with the mare chalking up three more Group 1 victories (taking her overall haul to seven) and probably running as well as she's ever done when getting the better of Ghaiyyath, the world's highest-rated turf horse, to win a second Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown last time.

She could be joined in the line-up for the mile-and-a-quarter showpiece by star stablemates Serpentine, this year's Investec Derby winner, plus Mogul, winner of the Juddmonte Grand Prix de Paris, not to mention last year's Juddmonte International winner Japan, and Sovereign, winner of last year's Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby.

Addeybb has not rested on his laurels, either, chalking up two Group 1 victories in Australia in the spring before finishing runner-up in the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot. He swiftly got back to winning ways in a Listed race at Ayr last time.

Standing in the way of the O'Brien contingent and Addeybb are two outstanding candidates trained by John Gosden in Mishriff, the Prix Du Jockey Club victor, and Lord North, emphatic winner of the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot in June.

Mishriff followed up his French Classic success by landing a Group 2 contest at Deauville, while Lord North was third behind Ghaiyyath and Magical in the Juddmonte International at York on his latest start.

Another fascinating runner among the home team is the William Muir-trained Pyledriver, who drops half a mile in distance after being beaten just over a length into third in the Pertemps St Leger at Doncaster last time. His exploits earlier in the season included emphatic wins in the King Edward VII Stakes, at Royal Ascot, and Sky Bet Great Voltigeur, at York.

Muir is delighted by the well-being of his stable flagbearer and is relishing dropping him back in distance. The trainer, seeking a first Group 1 win after 29 years with a licence, said: “He's getting stronger and is starting to retain his weight easier. His work has been good, the same as ever, and I'm very confident I've still got him at his best.

“I think if it hadn't been for this type of year, we would probably not run him over a mile and a six in the St Leger. You can't be dogmatic and say he didn't stay because he ground it out, but that was his class. He wasn't as effective because we took his gears and speed away from him. Martin [Dwyer] was sitting, waiting and having to hold him on to him when he wanted to kick.

“I'm not worried about the ground and the trip won't be a problem. Straight after he won the Voltigeur, the jockey went on TV and said he had the pace to win a Group 1 over a mile and a quarter.”

Pyledriver will be staying in training next year. Muir said: “We've got loads to look forward to with this horse and, no matter what else, the boys [the trio who own the horse] have had a fantastic time. We've enjoyed every minute of it and we've got next year and the year after with him, when we will be looking at the big races all around the world.”

Cirrus Des Aigles (2011) and Almanzor (2016) have been French-trained winners of the QIPCO Champion Stakes in the past decade and Skalleti will attempt to again take the prize across the Channel.

The 5-year-old grey, trained by Jerome Reynier, has won 12 of his 15 races and scooped the Group 2 Qatar Prix Dollar for a second time at Longchamp this month. Before that, he had mastered Sottsass, the subsequent Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner, in a Group 3 contest at Deauville.

Other possibles among the 16 entries include three-time Group 1 winner Benbatl, who is also engaged in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (sponsored by QIPCO).

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Breeders’ Cup Contender Harvest Moon Winning ‘For Her Mama’

Alice Bamford, co-owner and breeder of Harvest Moon, gives her beloved 3-year-old filly a pep talk before every start. “Harvest Moon,” she will say, “go and do it for your Mama.” It can be debated whether the horse understands Bamford’s encouraging words. There is no questioning her response, however.

Rowdy Yates The Morning-Line Favorite In Friday’s Oklahoma Classics Cup

For the second year in a row, Deal Driven, a stakes winner at Parx in Philadelphia is shipping in from the East Coast to try his wares in the $175,000 Oklahoma Classics Cup on Friday, Oct. 16 at Remington Park.

In 2019, now-retired millionaire Shotgun Kowboy, a four-time winner of the Oklahoma Classics Cup, easily put Deal Driven away. This year, Deal Driven has been made the second choice in the morning-line at 5-2 odds, behind only Rowdy Yates who is the 2-1 favorite. Remington Park odds-maker Jerry Shottenkirk established the latter at the top of the line, based off his multiple stakes wins at this Oklahoma City track. Rowdy Yates won the Oklahoma Classics Juvenile last year and then followed that with a victory in the Don McNeill Stakes here.

Rowdy Yates, a 3-year-old colt by Morning Line, out of the Yes It's True mare Spring Station, is the top earner in the field with $346,556 in his bankroll, just barely more than Deal Driven at $342,896. Deal Driven, a 6-year-old gelded son of the hottest sire in the country this year – Into Mischief – comes from the Tiznow mare Tiz Merry. Deal Driven won the $60,000 Parx Hall of Fame Handicap on Sept. 14, 2019.

Deal Driven could do no better than fifth in the Classics Cup last year, beaten 20-1/4 lengths by Shotgun Kowboy, who holds the record for winning the race four times. Shotgun Kowboy took the trophy in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2019, for owner-trainer C.R. Trout of Edmond. Shotgun Kowboy also is one of two horses to have won this race three years in a row. The other was Mr. Ross from 1999-2001. Zee Oh Six won three times but not in consecutive years.

Fifteen-time Remington Park top trainer Steve Asmussen, and the country's top conditioner by money earned, campaigns Rowdy Yates. That colt, owned by L and N Racing of Tulsa, Okla., is coming off a sixth-place finish in the Grade 3, $200,000 Oklahoma Derby here on Sept. 27 at 1-1/8^th miles. Deal Driven last raced Sept. 10 at Laurel, running second in an allowance-optional $50,000 claiming race at seven furlongs. The Oklahoma Classics Cup is raced at 1-1/16^th miles. Jockey Stewart Elliott gets the call on Rowdy Yates, while Ramon Vazquez is aboard Deal Driven for trainer Robert Mosco and owner Troy Johnson and Charles Lo of Vacaville, Calif.

Trout will try to keep his winning streak alive in the cup with Fast Breakin Cash at 5-1 odds. His resume is blackened with excellent efforts in stakes-company, running second in the $75,000 Kip Deville and $100,000 Oklahoma Classics Juvenile in 2018, and the $70,000 Jim Thorpe Stakes in 2019. All those races were over the Remington Park surface. Fast Breaking Cash finished third behind two-time Oklahoma Horse of the Year, Welder, in last year's $130,000 Oklahoma Classics Sprint.

Here's a look at Classics Cup field of eight, from the rail out with jockey, trainer and morning-line odds:

1) Dont Tell Noobody: Sophie Doyle, Federico Villafranco, 15-1

2) Georgia Deputy: Ezequiel Lara, Joe Petalino, 20-1

3) United Patriot: Lori Biehler, Michael Biehler, 10-1

4) Rowdy Yates: Stewart Elliott, Steve Asmussen, 2-1

5) Fast Breakin Cash: Luis Quinonez, C.R. Trout, 5-1

6) Dak Da Man: Lane Luzzi, Kari Craddock, 6-1

7) Kwik: David Cabrera, Karl Broberg, 10-1

8) Deal Driven: Ramon Vazquez, Robert Mosco, 5-2

Remington Park racing continues Saturday, Oct. 10, with nine races underway at 7:07pm-Central.

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