Battle of heavyweights White Abarrio, Fierceness and Raging Torrent in G1 Hill ‘n’ Dale Metropolitan Handicap

Together they have won 15 stakes races, eight of them against Grade 1 company, and more than $12.5 million in purse money. On Saturday, White Abarrio, Fierceness and Raging Torrent will converge on Saratoga Race Course from all parts of the country for the 132nd running of the Grade 1, $1 million Hill ‘n’ Dale Metropolitan Handicap in a race that promises to be a truly memorable edition of the historic event for 3-year-olds and up traveling one mile out of the Wilson Chute.
 
The Met Mile once again offers a “Win and You’re In” berth to the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile in November at Del Mar. It is part of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, which spans Wednesday through Sunday highlighted by the 157th edition of the Grade 1, $2 million Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets on Saturday, June 7. The five-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival will include 27 stakes races with purses totaling $11.275 million, both the most ever offered since the launch of the multi-day Festival in 2014.
 
Gary Barber, C2 Racing Stable and Antonio Pagnano’s 6-year-old White Abarrio will be making his third attempt at the Met Mile, having run third to Horse of the Year Cody’s Wish in 2023 at Belmont Park and fifth to National Treasure last year at Saratoga for trainer Rick Dutrow, Jr. Both Cody’s Wish and National Treasure were named Champion Older Dirt Male following their Met Mile victories.
 
White Abarrio had left the Joseph, Jr. barn for Dutrow, Jr.’s just weeks before the 2023 Met Mile, and went on to win the Grade 1 Whitney and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic later that year. Last year, he finished 10th in the Group 1 Saudi Cup ahead of his Met Mile misfire, after which he was given a well-deserved break before returning to the care of Joseph, Jr.
 
“We feel like he’s in top form right now and if everything continues into the race, we go in there with an extremely good chance,” Joseph, Jr. said. “We took our time to get him back and the time really helped him. He was a good 2-year-old, a good 3-year-old, and then he did really well with Rick. He won the Breeders’ Cup Classic and then after that he kind of tailed off after Saudi.
 
“You never know if a horse is going to come back at that age,” he added. “But for him to come back and show his brilliance – he’s just as fast on the [speed] figures, or even faster on the [Ragozin sheets] – it just shows the kind of class horse he is.”
 
White Abarrio’s four most recent races have all come in South Florida at Gulfstream Park. He returned from 168 days between starts to win an optional claiming allowance last November and ended the year with a late-running second after getting away slowly in the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector, both sprinting seven furlongs. White Abarrio opened this year with a 6 1/4-length romp in the Grade 1, $3 million Pegasus World Cup and followed with a similarly dominant 5 1/4-length score in the Grade 3 Ghostzapper March 29, each around two turns.
 
“His Pegasus was huge. It was a big performance,” Joseph, Jr. said. “The Ghostzapper was a steppingstone just to kind of find a filler until the Met Mile. I thought in that race they went quick and he was pressured the whole way. He ran with a target on his back, which you expect as a heavy favorite, but he was just as impressive again.”
 
White Abarrio owns 10 wins, four of them Grade 1, and $6.97 million in purse earnings from 21 starts. He has one win and two thirds from four prior tries at one mile, and will have Irad Ortiz, Jr. aboard from Post 2 at topweight of 126 pounds.
 
“I feel distance-wise it’s fine for him. The key with him is just making sure he comes into the race in top form. We feel like he is in top form and don’t think the distance will be a problem,” Joseph, Jr. said. “He’s very happy at the moment. He showed that in his last work and the race can’t some soon enough.”
 
Bred by Mike Repole’s Repole Stable and co-owned with the Coolmore partnership of Derrick Smith, Michael Tabor and Mrs. John Magnier, Fierceness earned Grade 1 credentials in the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and 2024 Florida Derby at Gulfstream and DraftKings Travers at Saratoga, where he also captured his August 2023 unveiling as well as last summer’s Grade 2 Jim Dandy presented by Mohegan Sun, defeating subsequent Champion 3-Year-Old Colt Sierra Leone, making him a perfect 3-for 3 at the Spa.
 
Trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, who previously won the Met Mile with Palace Malice [2014] and Quality Road [2010], Fierceness has raced just once this year but made it memorable by winning the 1 1/16-mile Grade 2 Alysheba by 1 1/2 lengths May 2 on the undercard of the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks. The final time of 1:40.66 was a Churchill Downs track record, coming in his first start since a second in the Breeders’ Cup Classic 182 days earlier.
 
“It was remarkable. You generally don’t see track record-setting performances with a slow early pace. That’s what made it so impressive. To go a half in 48 [seconds] and set a track record is a pretty significant achievement, especially at a historical place like Churchill,” Pletcher said. “He’s put in some remarkable performances. He always trains like a special horse so you can’t really be surprised when he does something like that, but it was still very impressive all the same.”
 
Fierceness has reversed an early pattern of following up strong performances with mystifying ones, having won three of his last four races, the lone exception coming in the Breeders’ Cup. The Champion 2-Year-Old Colt of 2023, his Travers victory came in dramatic fashion over eventual Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna.
 
Returning to Saratoga immediately following the Alysheba, Fierceness shows three strong breezes for his first try at one mile since a disappointing seventh in the 2023 Champagne.
 
“We feel good about it. He won the Jim Dandy and the Travers and broke his maiden over this track, so we know he seems to like it here. My biggest concern really is just the Wilson Chute and the way they run a mile here, it can become a bit tricky,” Pletcher said. “There’s nothing you can really do about it. You’ve just got to hope that you draw well and break alertly. I’m sure he handles the track.”
 
Hall of Famer John Velazquez, who seeks a record-extending sixth Met Mile win, is named to ride Fierceness – a winner of 6-of-10 races and $4.315 million in purses – from Post 1 at 125 pounds.
 
Like White Abarrio, Yuesheng Zhang and Great Friends Stable’s Southern California-based Raging Torrent brings a two-race win streak into the Met Mile. The 4-year-old colt was a popular winner of the Grade 1 Malibu sprinting seven furlongs December 26 at Santa Anita, after which he traveled to Dubai and rolled in the Group 2 Godolphin Mile April 5 by 3 1/2 lengths in his lone start this year.
 
“We’ve had some success in the Godolphin Mile. We always have enjoyed that race. It just is such a perfect race for an American horse,” trainer Doug O’Neill said. “We did kind of circle that and we were lucky enough to get invited. You never know how horses travel and how they do that but he traveled really well and settled in well there and ran lights out.
 
“He continues to excel in the mornings. Coming off his Godolphin Mile win he shipped back in great shape and continues to train well,” he added. “We realize the Met Mile is going to be a super tough race, which it always is, and a very prestigious and honorable race, and we’re just excited and optimistic about our chances.”
 
Raging Torrent is a six-time winner of more than $1.2 million in purse earnings from 13 starts. Four of his wins have come in stakes including a gutsy neck triumph in the seven-furlong Pat O’Brien last August at Del Mar.
 
“Winning the Pat O’Brien was lights out and then to get that Grade 1 was big-time,” O’Neill said. “Just the way everything’s gone, we’ve kind of mapped out a plan and it’s difficult because they’re not machines but he’s been able to give us the green light in some of these big races. It’s been a lot of fun and it’s been great to work alongside Raging Torrent. He’s a very professional, really nice colt.”
 
Frankie Dettori, up for the last two races, gets the return call from Post 5 at 123 pounds.
 
“He trains like he can go a mile and quarter. Early on in his career, I think just mentally he wasn’t there yet where he could shut it off a little bit early and finish up late,” O’Neill said. “We know from the Godolphin Mile, the distance is not a problem. It’s really just how the race unfolds. Frankie will be back on him. He’s two-for-two on him and knows him well.
 
“This race being run at Saratoga, it starts around the bend a little bit. It’s the closest thing to two turns without being two turns,” he added. “I think it’s a good place for us. Again, the prestige of the Met Mile is second to none. It’s going to be a great race.”
 
Qatar Racing’s Just a Touch is entered to make his return to stakes competition after winning each of his two starts this year – a 1 1/16-mile Fair Grounds allowance March 1 and 1 1/8-mile Keeneland optional claiming allowance April 19 – by 17 1/2 combined lengths. The 4-year-old Brad Cox trainee went unraced at 2 and made five starts at 3 with a maiden win and seconds in the Grade 1 Blue Grass, Grade 3 Gotham and Listed Iowa Derby, his final start before returning over the winter.
 
Just a Touch drew Post 4 with Florent Geroux up at 119 pounds.
 
Sanford Goldfarb, Nice Guys Stables and Robert Falcone, Jr.’s Castle Chaos returns to the Met Mile having run fourth last year, 3 1/2 lengths in front of White Abarrio, as the longest shot in the field at 29-1. Trained by Falcone, Jr., the 7-year-old gelding has placed three times in graded-stakes, most recently a second in the 2024 Grade 2 Carter presented by NYRA Bets that preceded his Met Mile run, and exits a fifth over a sloppy track in the May 3 Listed Knicks Go at Churchill Downs.
 
Flavien Prat rides from Post 3 at a field-low 116 pounds.
 
The Met Mile is slated as Race 8 on Saturday’s 14-race card which co-features the Grade 2, $300,000 Wonder Again in Race 6, Grade 3, $300,000 Pennine Ridge in Race 10, Grade 3, $400,000 True North in Race 7, the Grade 1, $500,000 Woody Stephens presented by Mohegan Sun in Race 11, the Grade 1, $500,000 Jaipur in Race 9, the Grade 1, $1 million Resorts World Casino Manhattan in Race 12 and the Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets in Race 13. First post is 10:45 a.m. Eastern with admission gates open to the public at 9 a.m.
 
Television coverage of Belmont Stakes Day will air across the FOX Sports family of networks beginning at 10:30 a.m. Eastern [FS1] prior to national broadcast coverage on FOX beginning at 2:30 p.m. For the complete Belmont Stakes Racing Festival television schedule, visit https://www.nyra.com/belmont-stakes/event-info/tv-schedule/. 

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