1 of 4 | Sierra Leone took plenty of kickback in a last-to-first win in Saturday’s Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga. Photo by Coglianese Photography, courtesy of NYRA<\/p>\n
Aug. 4 (UPI) — Reigning Breeders’ Cup Classic champion Sierra Leone earned a repeat trip to that race with a victory in Saturday’s Grade I Whitney Stakes, but still has a scramble to nail down the leadership of his division.<\/p>\n
Deterministic and Seismic Beauty also captured “Win and You’re In” Breeders’ Cup spots and Ewing and Mythical emerged as top 2-year-olds — all in weekend racing.\n<\/p>\n
On the global front, Nicoreni defended local honor in Germany and Fallen Angel won a tough edition of the Prix Rothschild in France.<\/p>\n
Classic\n<\/p>\n
Saturday’s $1 million Grade I Whitney at Saratoga attracted an appropriately talented field, including the last two winners of the Breeders’ Cup Classic.<\/p>\n
Only one of them made much of an impression — Sierra Leone, who rallied from the back of the nine-horse field to win with relative ease by 1 length over Highland Falls.\n<\/p>\n
Sierra Leone, the reigning Classic champ, earned a try for a repeat in the “Win and You’re In” race. The 2024 Classic winner, White Abarrio, was a non-factor Saturday, finishing fourth. The favorite, Fierceness, had a chance to near the sixteenth pole, but then tired to finish fifth.<\/p>\n
It was the third start and first win of the year for Sierra Leone, a Gun Runner colt trained by Chad Brown<\/a> for a trans-Atlantic partnership.<\/p>\n Mindframe, who was scratched from the Whitney in favor of stablemate Fierceness, defeated Sierra Leone by 1 length in the Grade I Stephen Foster<\/a> at Churchill Downs on June 28. Fierceness was last seen finishing second in the Grade I Met Mile. So the division title remains up for grabs?<\/p>\n Brown: “It’s a division that’s very good. This is no walk in the park to get back into the Breeders’ Cup Classic.”<\/p>\n Brad Cox<\/a>, trainer of Highland Falls: “Horses beat horses. They take turns punching each other, and we’ll see. I like where we are with our horse.”<\/p>\n Also: Sunday at Mountaineer, Chunk of Gold led gate to wire in the $400,000 Grade III West Virginia Derby and won by 4 1\/4 lengths over McAfee.\n<\/p>\n On the undercard Dubai World Cup winner Hit Show was all out to defeat Not This Boy by a head in the $200,000 West Virginia Governor’s Stakes.<\/p>\n And Saturday at Woodbine, Swift Delivery won the $150,000 (Canadian) Seagram Cup by 2 lengths over late-rallying favorite Dresden Row.<\/p>\n Distaff\n<\/p>\n Seismic Beauty took them gate to wire in Saturday’s $400,000 Grade I Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar, holding on at the end to win by 1 1\/2 lengths over Kopion. Richi was third.<\/p>\n Seismic Beauty ran 1 1\/16 miles on a fast track in 1:42.33 with Juan Hernandez up and earned a “Win and You’re In” spot for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.<\/p>\n