Test Score tops trio of top-flight winners in G1 Saratoga Derby Invitational

A deft and dynamic field of runners from each side of the Atlantic will assemble for Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Saratoga Derby Invitational over 1 3/16 miles of the Mellon turf, topped by a trio of top-flight winners. Chief among those is Amerman Racing’s Kentucky homebred Test Score, last-out winner of the Grade 1 Belmont Derby Invitational on July 4 here for conditioner Graham Motion.

For the third consecutive year, per a partnership between the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) and Moonee Valley Racing Club, the race’s winner will receive an automatic berth into the prestigious Group 1, AUD$6 million Ladbrokes Cox Plate, set to take place on October 25. State of Rest captured the 2021 Saratoga Derby and went on to win the Cox Plate.
 
A son of Champion Lookin At Lucky, Test Score became a millionaire with his last out victory, his third from eight starts, coming on the heels of an excellent second in the Grade 1 American Turf. Asserting himself in the final furlong under Manny Franco, the bay colt landed his second stakes in the process, following his tally in Keeneland’s Grade 3 Transylvania on April 7. Franco has the return call from post 5.
 
“It wasn’t my original plan to go into the Saratoga Derby, but it just made sense,” Motion said. “It’s a Grade 1 and he just won up here on the course. I also think the added distance here will help.
 
“He’s pretty classy in the morning,” Motion added. “Although a good feeling 3-year-old colt who wants to get a little wound up in the paddock.” 
 
British-bred runners have landed two previous editions with Program Trading [2023] and Domestic Spending [2020] and will have a pair of opportunities on Saturday to add a third with Group / Grade 1 winners Hotazhell and New Century.
 
Tested against the best in Ireland and the U.K., the Jessica Harrington-trained Hotazhell was a $261,362 Tattersalls Breeze-Up buy in April of 2024 who kicked off his career with a fourth to subsequent Group 1-winner Scorthy Champ at Leopardstown before graduating second up at The Curragh.

Kept busy the remainder of his juvenile season, he ran in four group stakes, including victories in the Group 3 Tyros, Group 2 Beresford and Group 1 Futurity Trophy - the latter two at one mile. His lone loss during that run was a second to subsequent Breeders’ Cup champ Henri Matisse in the Group 2 Futurity over seven furlongs.

Only raced twice this year thus far, he was confidently thrown directly into the deep end, finishing third to Europe’s top-rated sophomore Field of Gold in the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas and then stretching out to 10 furlongs to finish a 3 3/4-length fifth of six in the star-studded Group 1 Eclipse behind Delacroix, a foe he had defeated in the Futurity Trophy.

“We are really looking forward to running Hotazhell in the Saratoga Derby," assistant trainer Kate Harrington said. "Overall, we’ve been delighted with him. He came out of Irish Guineas very well and ran very respectably in the Coral-Eclipse, coming back at them at the line. He seems to have travelled over to the states very well and our team over there is very happy with him. I’m really looking forward to him racing this weekend.”

Classy and consistent, his presence demands much of his competitors, while Harrington looks to improve upon a ninth in this race in 2021 with Cadillac by bringing a far more accomplished sort. Regular pilot Shane Foley comes in for the ride from post 7.

Qatar Racing’s New Century [post 6, Irad Ortiz, Jr.], from the first crop of his owner’s record-setting Group 1 2000 Guineas winner Kameko, is one of the most accomplished in the race, but must improve upon his two most recent stateside efforts to prove victorious. The bay colt graduated at Doncaster at second asking last June, marking his affinity for fast ground. He then proceeded to run a good second to Godolphin’s well-regarded Al Qudra in the Pat Eddery at Ascot in July.

After a win in the Stonehenge at Salisbury over a mile, he shipped to Canada’s Woodbine for the Grade 1 Summer and turned the tables on Al Qudra, stamping himself as one of the favorites for the Breeders’ Cup. Six weeks later, he ran with credit in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, finishing a two-length fourth behind now-multiple top-flight winner Henri Matisse.

Kicking off his sophomore campaign, New Century ran into aforementioned buzzsaw Field of Gold, in the Group 3 Craven, finishing a five-length fifth, with 3 1/2 of those lengths being an imperious Field of Gold’s winning margin. Said effort was his final run for trainer Andrew Balding.

Transferred to the care of Brendan Walsh, he finished a closing third in the Grade 1 American Turf on Kentucky Derby Day at Churchill Downs before returning on July 4 at Saratoga in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby, running much closer to the pace than usual under Oisin Murphy, checking in a two-length fifth as the market leader.

“In hindsight, we messed it up,” Walsh reflected. “It wasn't Oisin's fault. We wanted to get him a little closer than what he did at Churchill the last time and he ended up being too close and the pace crumbled. It was just one of those things. We'll change it around and hopefully that will work better.”
 
Bred in Ireland, trained in France by an Italian and raced last out in Germany, the cosmopolitan yet lightly raced Juwelier [post 2, Umberto Rispoli] comes to the Spa with a trajectory as promising as his pedigree.

By Wootton Bassett, and out of a full-sister to French Derby winner Intello, the Alessandro Botti trainee kicked off his career with a fourth in a Deauville all-weather maiden behind subsequent multiple Group 1 performer Frankly Good Cen.

Given four months off, Juwelier made his sophomore bow in April a victorious one over nine furlongs at Fountainebleau, a race that set him up for stakes action in his following two runs—a fifth in the Listed Prix de Suresnes at Chantilly after setting the pace and then a strong head victory in the Group 3 German Derby Trial at Baden-Baden over favored Path Of Soldier, who would finish fourth of 16 in the Group 1 German Derby next out - a race from which Juwelier was scratched. Entered in the Arqana Summer Mixed Sale last month, he was a lofty RNA at $1,298,668.

Irish-based Tiberius Thunder [post 8, Frankie Dettori] carries the colors of one of the world’s rising powers in racing, AMO Racing Limited, and enters off a respectable fourth of 12 in Royal Ascot’s Group 3 Hampton Court behind Trinity College, who would lose the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris by a nose four weeks later. A winner on debut over Dundalk’s flat, oval and left-handed all-weather surface in February over one mile, he returned to finish third to Delacroix in the Group 3 Ballysax in late March.

Fourth in the Listed Blue Riband Trial at Epsom next up, a race in which Trinity College was second, he was fifth and last in a roughly run Group 3 Gallinule - a race that appeared his best chance on paper at breaking through at the pattern level. Wheeled back for a bit of redemption into Royal Ascot, he ran with credit, despite appearing to have his stamina checked in the final throws. A cut back in trip could be the perfect storm for the son of world-class stallion Night Of Thunder—a sire already represented by a Grade 1 winner this summer at Saratoga when Dynamic Pricing won June’s Just a Game presented by Resolute Racing.

Carrying the famed green and pink silks of Juddmonte, deep-closing homebred Final Gambit [post 3, Flavien Prat, blinkers ON] owns a pair of victories, both over the all-weather Tapeta surface of Turfway Park in northern Kentucky, including a one-sided tally in the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks over nine furlongs in the spring. Said effort earned him enough points to get into the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby, a race in which he more than earned his keep, rallying from last of 19 to finish a solid fourth for dual Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox.

Final Gambit’s two tries on the turf have been rallying, respectable runs, including a third on debut and a two-length fifth last out in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby.

Also no stranger to followers of the Triple Crown trail, the blaze-faced Tiztastic [post 4, Joel Rosario] caught racing’s gaze with a 2 1/4-length victory in March’s Grade 2 Louisiana Derby, earning his way squarely into the Kentucky Derby, where he would finish 10th. The victory was his third, but first on the dirt, as he had broken his maiden and won in Listed company at the rich Kentucky Downs meeting in late summer, beefing up his impressive bankroll.

After running admirably in four consecutive two-turn dirt graded stakes, including a second in the Grade 3 Street Sense won by Sovereignty and a pair of thirds in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club and Grade 3 Southwest, he finally broke through in a big way in the Big Easy.

Since the Run for the Roses, the son of Not This Time was given eight weeks off and returned to the turf in the Listed American Derby, where he went off as the favorite, but never got involved at a distance likely below his optimal, checking in a lackluster fifth.

“You don't draw a line through it - it is what it is,” Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen said of the American Derby. “Like I always say, if it's in black and white, it's true, but I think he is in a way better place mentally and physically right now than he was then.
 
“[The Saratoga Derby is] a great financial opportunity,” Asmussen continued. “He's been versatile enough. A horse that won a million-dollar race on the turf as well as the Louisiana Derby [on dirt].”
 
A pair of last-out Saratoga graded stakes runners-up carrying renowned silks complete the lineup in Tranquility Lake Farms’ homebred Capitol Hill [post 1, John Velazquez] and Pin Oak Stud’s World Beater [post 9, Jaime Torres].
 
The former, trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, broke his maiden at second asking in March at Tampa Bay Downs and has continued to ascend in class since. Fourth in a Keeneland allowance before a wide-trip eighth in a Saratoga allowance optional claiming event, he justified his connections’ confidence with a last-to-second run in the Grade 3 Manila, bested by only Zulu Kingdom, winner of the Grade 1 American Turf over Test Score in his previous race. On the improve, he is a full-brother to 2024 Grade 2 Wood Memorial winner Resilience.

It is a rare thing to improve with every single race, seven consecutive times no less, but that is just what World Beater has done for young trainer Riley Mott.

The son of Oscar Performance has gone from a pair of failed dirt attempts to a smart Churchill Downs turf maiden winner over Kentucky Derby weekend that propelled him to a Listed stakes victory next out in the Audubon over the same nine furlongs.

Improving another six Beyer Speed Figure points next up to 88, he was a game second when last seen in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby behind Test Score.

"He’s been on a constant improve since we’ve put him on the turf," Mott said. "He ran a strong race last time and came back excellent. We presume this race will be even more competitive, so he’ll certainly need to continue improving to be effective."

A $105,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase, World Beater is out of Dabinett, a half-sister to 2017 Grade 1 Just a Game runner-up Sassy Little Lila whose short-lived career included an eye-catching Saratoga maiden win. 

The Saratoga Derby is slated as Race 9 on Saturday's 13-race card, which is headlined by the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney in Race 11. A stacked program also includes the Grade 2, $200,000 Saratoga Special in Race 3, the Grade 1, $750,000 FanDuel Fourstardave in Race 8 and the Grade 1, $500,000 Test presented by Ticketmaster in Race 10. First post is 12:05 p.m. Eastern.

Saratoga Live will present live coverage and analysis of the summer meet at Saratoga Race Course on the networks of FOX Sports. For the broadcast schedule and channel finder, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule/.

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