Mystic Guide, Happy Saver Vie in Jockey Club Gold Cup

In a year filled with unique and unusual events, two trainers recently faced decisions no one ever pondered before.

Each had to decide whether to run their horse in the Preakness Stakes (G1) or … the Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes (G1).

Considering how the two races are usually more than four months apart, trainers Michael Stidham and Todd Pletcher were each asked to weigh an option unique to 2020. Either enter the Oct. 3 Preakness against 3-year-olds at 1 3/16 miles, this year's final leg of the Triple Crown at Pimlico Race Course, or wait a week and take on older horses Oct. 10 in the $250,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at 1 1/4 miles. Both races provide automatic entry into the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) as part of the "Win and You're In" qualifying series.

Both trainers chose the Jockey Club Gold Cup, putting Stidham's Mystic Guide and Pletcher's unbeaten Happy Saver among a cozy field of five at Belmont Park where they will face a top Classic contender in Juddmonte Farms' Tacitus.

For Stidham, though the Jockey Club Gold Cup offers only a quarter of the Preakness purse, the deciding  factors were a longer distance at a racetrack with sweeping turns that better suits the grade 2 winner's late-running style.

"We felt like the Jockey Club, from a distance standpoint and a track standpoint, suits our horse better than the Preakness. Pimlico has tighter turns and is biased toward a horse who can be close around the turns. Our horse is more of a come-from-behind type who makes a long run and comes from off the pace," Stidham said. "Win, lose, or draw in the Gold Cup, we feel we're making the right decision by running there."

How the Preakness turned out only added to Stidham's belief he made the right move.  

Godolphin's homebred Mystic Guide, a son of Ghostzapper , comes into the prestigious race off a victory in the Sept. 5 Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) for 3-year-olds at Saratoga Race Course on the same afternoon as the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) at Churchill Downs. In rallying from last in a field of six and posting a three-quarter-length victory over Liveyourbeastlife and Jesus' Team, he finished in front of two rivals who ran in the Preakness with mixed results.

Liveyourbeastlife, who was second by three-quarters of a length over Jesus' Team, finished 11th and last at 34-1 odds in the Preakness. Jesus' Team was a much better third at 40-1 odds, 10 lengths behind the victorious Swiss Skydiver.

Besides that, Swiss Skydiver and the runner-up, Authentic, were either on the lead or close to the pace throughout a race that was contested in the second-fastest time in its 145-year history.

"I don't think we would have had much of a chance in the Preakness," Stidham said.

The Jockey Club Gold Cup, reduced in purse amid COVID-19 from last year's $750,000, does not appear a vintage renewal. 

Out of the grade 1-winning A.P. Indy mare Music Note, Mystic Guide has won two of five starts and was third in the Peter Pan Stakes (G3).

Wertheimer and Frere's homebred Happy Saver enters with a 3-for-3 record since his unveiling June 20 at Belmont Park on the undercard of the Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1). In his most recent outing, the Super Saver  colt made his stakes debut and won the Federico Tesio Stakes at Laurel Park, which provided him with a free spot in the Preakness that was not used.

"He's a lightly raced 3-year-old going up against older horses, but he's done everything that we've asked of him so far," Pletcher said. "He just had some baby setbacks. We almost had him ready to run here last fall, but we had to give him a break. It just took him a little while to get ready, but he's certainly made up a lot of ground in a short period of time." 

Three-year-olds have historically enjoyed a good measure of success in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Since 2006, Bernardini  (2006), Curlin  (2007), Summer Bird (2009), Tonalist  (2014), and Code of Honor (2019) have emerged victorious, the latter by the disqualification of Vino Rosso .

For Tacitus, the Jockey Club Gold Cup will provide the 4-year-old homebred son of Tapit  with another opportunity at securing his first grade 1 victory.

A multiple grade 2 winner who was third in last year's Jockey Club Gold Cup, he owns a list of runner-up finishes that includes the Belmont Stakes, Runhappy Travers Stakes (G1), and Woodward Handicap (G1) in his most recent start. He was also third in the Kentucky Derby during a 13-start career in which he has four wins, four seconds, and two thirds with earnings of more than $2.9 million.

"We've been working on getting him a grade 1 win," trainer Bill Mott said. "That's been my job and goal. I hope maybe this is the one."

A landslide 8 3/4-length winner of the July 4 Suburban Stakes (G2) at 10 furlongs at Belmont Park, Tacitus settled for second in the Woodward behind Global Campaign, who notched a gate-to-wire 1 3/4-length win in the Sept. 5 10-furlong test against just four rivals.

"He came out of the Woodward fine and has put in some good, useful breezes since then," said Mott, a three-time winner of the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

The pace scenario looms as a big question mark since the only other starters are William Clifton's Prioritize and Colts Neck Stables' Name Changer, and the former is a deep closer. Happy Saver and Name Changer are two of the quickest on early pace figures and breaking from the fence. Happy Saver is in a position where showing speed could be of benefit. 

Tacitus has also sat close at times since adding blinkers, usually in slow-paced contests. 

The 102nd Jockey Club Gold Cup (4:48 p.m. ET post time) will be the ninth of 11 races on a card that features four grade 1s. First-race post is 12:20 p.m.

Entries: Jockey Club Gold Cup S. (G1)

Belmont Park, Saturday, October 10, 2020, Race 9

• Grade I
• 1 1/4m
• Dirt
• $250,000
• 3 yo's & up
• 4:48 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Happy Saver (KY)	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	122	Todd A. Pletcher	2/1
2	2Prioritize (KY)	Luis Saez	126	H. James Bond	4/1
3	3Name Changer (KY)	Manuel Franco	126	Jorge Duarte, Jr.	20/1
4	4Tacitus (KY)	Jose L. Ortiz	126	William I. Mott	1/1
5	5Mystic Guide (KY)	John R. Velazquez	122	Michael Stidham	4/1