Saffie favoured for 4th Championship win

Veteran Barbados trainer Saffie Joseph Jr is going for a fourth straight Championship Meet trainer’s title, as the prestigious winter Thoroughbred show got underway on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Florida, USA.

“I feel like we are in a good position. We have the quality and we also have the numbers,” Joseph said on Wednesday. “We should have a good chance of doing it.”

Joseph, 37 years old, attained 66 wins in 2023-24 to lift his third trainers title in a row. Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher had won 18 consecutive Championship Meet titles before Joseph claimed the 2021-22 crown with 58 wins and repeated in 2022-23 with 47 winners.

“Todd had won 18 in a row. We were the first one to beat him. It definitely gives you a boost,” Joseph admitted. “It’s the Championship Meet, quality winter racing. Everyone is watching Gulfstream at that time, so it’s a big accomplishment in my career. You hope you can keep going and build on it, so to repeat the next year was probably as big as the first year.”

Pletcher finished second last season with 37 winners. Joseph also won in excess of US $3.4 million in purse earnings.

Joseph runs Corinne and Bill Heiligbrodt’s Bellavinino in the $115,000 Wait a While Stakes. Drayden Van Dyke, who earlier this month teamed with Joseph to win the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) with Soul of an Angel, rides from post 7.

The Bajan champion also saddles Ramsey Pond in the Wait a While. Edgard Zayas will have the ride on the three-year-old filly from post 9 Soul of an Angel is being pointed toward the December 26 Rampart Stakes, a one-turn mile for fillies and mares that could advance her toward the $20 million Saudi Cup (G1) February 22. The latter race is at 1 1/8 miles around one turn.

“If we decide to go to the Saudi race, she’ll go in the Rampart. If we change it, she’ll go to the Rampart and then the Madison at Keeneland,” Joseph said. “The key to her is one turn. She’s obviously decent at two turns, but at one turn, she’s a different quality of a horse.”

Joseph, who clinched his 11th consecutive title at Gulfstream during the Sunshine Meet, said multiple Grade 2 winner Skippylongstocking would also be pointed toward the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational. Skippylongstocking won the Oaklawn Handicap (G2) before defending his title in the Charles Town Classic (G2).

The Championship Meet will be highlighted by Gulfstream Park’s two marquee races, the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational on January 25 and the $1 million Florida Derby on March 29. The $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf remains the only other Grade 1 event on the schedule.

(Gulfstream)