After last week’s Sword Dancer Stakes, it’s another big day on the racing calendar at Saratoga on Saturday as it hosts the Jockey Club Gold Cup.
Favourite for the 1 mile 2 furlong Grade 1 is Olympiad, 2.87 with bet365. The 4-year-old is looking to bounce back having finished fourth of five in the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes at this track a month ago, which came after four straight wins in Grade 2 and 3 contests.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: September 2nd, 11:00 AM (BST)
Usually running better on a faster track, jockey Junior Alvarado and trainer William Mott will hope the dry conditions this time will lead to success.
In good form recently with two wins on the spin is Todd Pletcher’s Dynamite One. Those victories coming in a listed race at Churchill Downs before a triumph in the Grade 2 Suburban Stakes at Belmont Park make him a 4.00 shot for this.
It will, however, be the 4-year-old’s first run both at Saratoga and in a Grade 1 since last year’s Travers Stakes where he came in last. Pletcher and Irad Ortiz know what it takes to win this race, though; they were Happy Saver’s winning team in 2020.
Pletcher trains half the horses in the eight-strong field and at 4.50, Americanrevolution is another of his strong chances. Yet to get off the mark this season with a 2nd and a 4th so far, he won three of his previous four, including the Grade 1 Cigar Mill Handicap at Aqueduct.
Regular jockey Luis Saez will not be taking the ride and instead Joel Rosario, who won this race in 2012 and 2014, is on board for the first time.
Saez will rather be riding First Captain for Claude McGaughey, who he partnered with to success at Pimlico in a Grade 3 this season before finishing runner-up to Dynamic One in the Suburban.
Clearly the 6.50 chance is improving under Saez and is aiming to step up from a last place finish in his only previous Grade 1 at Aqueduct in April.
Keepmeinmind is another in with a shout for Todd Pletcher at 10.00. He won an allowance race at Saratoga in July in what was his first run for Pletcher’s yard. That was his first win since November 2020.
The two 6-year-olds, Tax and Chess Chief, command longer odds but Tax cannot be considered a complete outsider. The same can be said for 17.00 chance Untreated, a horse that finished third in the Suburban last time out.
