Happy Saver looks to rebound in Jockey Club Gold Cup

SARATOGA SPRINGS — It's been an up and down summer for trainer Todd Pletcher.

First, the good: the 54-year-old received the highest honor thoroughbred racing can offer when he was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame on Aug. 6. His sparkling 3-year-old filly Malathaat won the Grade I Alabama. With three days left in the Saratoga meet, he is in second place in the training standings.

Now, the not-so-good: Malathaat came to Saratoga unbeaten after five starts and then got upset in the Grade I Coaching Club American Oaks. Midway through the meet, Pletcher tested positive for COVID.

The wild Saratoga ride is nearing an end for Pletcher and everyone else who spends most of July, all of August and a little bit of September in the Spa city.

Pletcher still has some big horses to bring out of his Saratoga barn before he closes it down for the season. One of them is the undefeated Wit, who runs in the Grade I Hopeful on closing day. Another is Happy Saver, one of the headliners in Saturday's Grade I, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup.

The Gold Cup, a longtime staple of the fall meet at Belmont Park, is being run at Saratoga for the first time along with the Grade I, $600,000 Flower Bowl on the grass. That race will also be run on Saturday.

"Overall, our meet has been good," Pletcher, a 14-time winner of the Saratoga training title, said outside his barn at the Oklahoma Training Track. "Like always, you have good and bad moments but, overall, I am happy with the way the stable has been running."

Happy Saver, who will be ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr. in the 1 1/4-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup, is the 9-5 morning-line second choice in the field of six. The 4-year-old son of 2010 Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver zipped through his first five starts.

Unraced at age 2, he completed his 3-year-old season with a win in this race last year at Belmont. In that edition of the Jockey Club Gold Cup, he beat Mystic Guide, who would go on to win the Dubai World Cup on March 27.

In Happy Saver's latest start, he lost for the first time when he was defeated by Max Player and Mystic Guide in the Grade II Suburban at Belmont on July 3. Max Player is the 5-2 third choice in the Jockey Club Gold Cup; Mystic Guide is on the shelf after having a bone chip removed from his knee.

"I think (the Suburban) was a better race than people give him credit for," Pletcher said. "He broke from post six in a field of six and in mile-and-a-quarter races at Belmont, the outside post is a disadvantage. He was hung out the whole way. I thought he continued trying to the wire and it was only his second start of the year."

Happy Saver made a quick climb up the ranks as a 3-year-old. Following a maiden, allowance and minor stakes win, he jumped into Grade I competition and won the Jockey Club Gold Cup. 

"He was able to do something that not many horses do," Pletcher said. "He proved he has talent and now, let's see if he can take the next step."

The morning-line favorite in the Jockey Club Gold Cup is the Bill Mott-trained Forza Di Oro (8-5), who made his first start of 2021 a winning one when he won an allowance here on July 21 by three lengths. It could have been more but jockey Junior Alvarado took his foot off the gas pedal in the last sixteenth.

He has won four of six career starts, but has had some big gaps between races. After finishing eighth in the Grade II Remsen as a 2-year-old, he wasn't seen again until the following October. Then, after a win in the Grade III Discovery last November at Aqueduct, he was out of action until his Saratoga race this past July.

"We thought he was our best 2-year-old," Mott said about Forza Di Oro back in 2019. "He just had an issue that took a long time to correct, a hind ankle that was a little sore. But he is working well for this. Stepping up to Grade I company for the first time is probably his biggest test, but we are anxious to give him a try and see if he belongs."