Joseph aims to repeat as champion

Barbadian trainer Saffie Joseph will be aiming to repeat as champion for a second season when the Gulfstream Park winter-spring campaign gets underway here on Boxing Day.

The 35-year-old wrapped up the Fall title on Christmas Eve, logging a single victory on the day’s final card on Christmas Eve, to finish with 28 wins from 130 outings.

And he wasted little in changing focus, already preparing mentally for a campaign he said would be a “tough” one, especially with Hall-of-Famer Todd Pletcher in the mix again.

“It’s going to be tough. You know he’s a champion, so he’s going to come back stronger than ever,” said Joseph, who ended Pletcher’s long run of championship wins last year.

“It’s going to be tough, but we’re going to give it a try, obviously.

“We obviously want to win, but running second to Todd is no disgrace, but we’re going to try to give him a run for his money.”

Joseph finished the 2021-22 championship campaign with 58 wins last April, dominating 18-time champion Pletcher who ended 12 back in second.

That success also came on the heels of Joseph’s earlier capture of the 2021 Fall meet, cementing him as a serious challenger at the south Florida oval.

“I used to come here on holidays when I was 15, 16, 17 and go to the races and see Todd Pletcher,” he explained.

“He’s somebody you look up to the way he carries himself, and he can train a Breeders’ Cup sprinter all the way to a mile-and-a-half race. He trains any kind of horse. That’s who I always looked up to my whole life.

“To actually beat him is quite remarkable. You dream about it. When it becomes reality, it puts it into perspective. It’s like ‘whoa!’ It makes you show a lot of gratitude. I

“It only happens when you have all the great horses and owners. That’s the most important thing, along with a great staff that does all the work.”

After a difficult start to life in the United States, Joseph has blossomed, winning several major races like the Grade 1 $1 million Florida Derby while also turning out horses in the Triple Crown.

And following his latest success, Joseph believes his career is in a good place.

“All glory to God. You feel like you’re going to break and not go on,” he pointed out.

“I look back to 2019, 2018. The worst meet we had was in 2018. There was a hurricane and they moved us from the barn to a tent. We went through that meet at Gulfstream like three for 48.

“It was the biggest struggle I had in my life. Six months later, everything started going right, and now we’re here.” (CMC)