Sierra Leone gets rematch with Mindframe in Jockey Club Gold Cup

Fresh off a victory in the Aug. 2 Whitney (G1) at Saratoga, champion Sierra Leone bids for a Breeders’ Cup Challenge double in Sunday’s $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) back at the Spa. 

Last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) hero already secured a return ticket to Del Mar via the “Win and You’re In” Whitney. Aside from giving Sierra Leone another race en route to his title defense, the Jockey Club Gold Cup offers an opportunity for revenge on Mindframe, who was last seen beating Sierra Leone in the “Win and You’re In” Stephen Foster (G1) on June 28 at Churchill Downs.

Sierra Leone’s recency isn’t the only difference in their rematch. The Chad Brown trainee has since picked up a dedicated pacemaker in Contrary Thinking, and his services were vital in setting the table for Sierra Leone’s last-to-first flourish in the 1 1/8-mile Whitney. Moreover, the 1 1/4-mile distance of the Jockey Club Gold Cup is even more congenial to Sierra Leone’s style. 

Hence, Brown hopes for a similarly successful race dynamic on Sunday. 

“Absolutely. He’s doing great,” Brown said of Sierra Leone, the 8-5 favorite on the morning line. “I’m very, very pleased with his last race, and his last two works have been excellent, so I’m very pleased with him.”

“He’s rounding back into form, and I think we have him right back where he was last year, towards the end of the year. I didn’t think he’d run enough, so one more start will do him good. He seems to like a mile and a quarter.”

Lightly-raced Mindframe doesn’t have as much experience at the American classic distance, but he did defeat Sierra Leone in his only try at 1 1/4 miles. In last year’s course-and-distance Belmont (G1), Mindframe just missed to Dornoch, and Sierra Leone got no nearer than third.

Although Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher entered Mindframe in the Whitney, he was effectively an insurance policy for stablemate Fierceness. Mindframe accordingly scratched, and Fierceness ended up tiring to fifth. The duo, both co-owned by Repole Stable in partnership, might have clashed in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, but Fierceness was dispatched to Saturday’s Pacific Classic (G1) instead. 

“Ideally,” Pletcher said, “you don’t want to run the two of them against each other when you don’t have to, when you have some other options. You try to do what is best for each horse.

“A big part of us not running Mindframe back in the Whitney was that he’s coming off a couple huge efforts. We felt like the extra time would do him well, and we wanted to get a mile and a quarter race into him prior to the Breeders’ Cup, so we felt like we weren’t losing an opportunity on him by waiting for the Jockey Club.”

Mindframe, pegged at 2-1 on the morning line, has won all three starts this season. After cutting back to one turn in the Gulfstream Park Mile (G2), he followed up in the seven-furlong Churchill Downs (G1) over a star-studded field including Nysos and Book’em Danno, and he stretched back out in the Stephen Foster. 

“I think his resume is awfully strong,” Pletcher added of Mindframe. “He’s run against some of the top horses, not only short, but long. He seems capable of doing just about anything.”

The respective second through fourth in the Whitney – Highland Falls, Disarm, and White Abarrio – will try to turn the tables on Sierra Leone.

Highland Falls, the defending Jockey Club Gold Cup champion, is eligible to be stronger in this third start off the layoff. The Godolphin homebred, who was a subpar ninth in the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Classic, didn’t resurface until a June 27 allowance at Aqueduct. Highland Falls outclassed the opposition, going a one-turn mile that day, and he ran a mighty race second off the bench in the Whitney.

“He ran a winning race second start off the layoff,” said Michael Banahan, Godolphin’s USA director of bloodstock. “At the eighth pole, I thought he may win it. He just got run down – run down by a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner. There’s no shame in that at all. That was probably one of the strongest older division races of the year. We are very proud of him. He ran exceptionally well, a winning race and such, but we move on to the next day.”

“I think he's a better horse this year than last,” trainer Brad Cox said of Highland Falls. “I thought he showed that off the layoff at Aqueduct, and his last time was really good. It was a bit of a stretched-out field going down the backside, but he sat close enough to the pace there with Fierceness tracking the top two horses, and he finished up well. He showed a lot of grit and determination down the lane. He always tries hard."

White Abarrio’s trainer, Saffie Joseph Jr., is likewise pleased with his chances. The star of the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic and Whitney during his stint with Rick Dutrow, White Abarrio returned to top form for Joseph at Gulfstream and notably romped in the Pegasus World Cup (G1). He subsequently regressed, but the signals have been encouraging lately. 

“I love him right now,” Joseph said. “He’s given us the confidence to feel that way, and I hope everything continues that way so we get to see the White Abarrio that’s so good when he is.

“I feel just as good, if not better, right now, as I did when we went into the Pegasus. Talk is cheap, but that’s how I feel. Everything he’s showing us right now is what you want to see, and hopefully, that carries over to the race.”

With Irad Ortiz Jr. staying aboard Mindframe, White Abarrio picks up a new rider in Ricardo Santana Jr.

Pletcher is double-handed in the Jockey Club Gold Cup with Antiquarian. Fifth in last year’s Belmont, he missed by only a head to Phileas Fogg in the July 4 Suburban (G2) in his latest.

“I think the track was completely different at that time than it is now,” Pletcher observed. “It seemed to be a very slow, demanding, speed-favoring track. I thought he finally got closing the very last part; he just couldn’t get there in time.”

Banishing wheels back just nine days after his biggest career win in the Charles Town Classic (G2). The Godolphin cast-off has been a money-spinner for his co-owner/trainer, David Jacobson. His proximity to Mindframe and Nysos in the Churchill Downs is a plus if Banishing can duplicate that level of form over an extra three furlongs here. 

Friday update: According to Daily Racing Form’s David Grening, Banishing will scratch and point for the Lukas Classic (G2) at Churchill Downs. 

Note the early post time for the feature, carded as the fifth race at 1:45 p.m. ET.

Later on the card, the $135,000 Disco Partner S. has lured such prominent turf sprinters as Big Invasion, Twenty Six Black, Alogon, and Doncho, who just scorched 5 1/2 furlongs in a record :59.75 at Ellis Park.