Peter Brant, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg and Brook Smith’s Kentucky-bred Sierra Leone powered home to win the 98th running of the $1 million Whitney S. (G1) at Saratoga on Saturday, Aug. 2.

Last year’s Champion 3-Year-Old Colt, Sierra Leone made a dramatic last-to-first move in the Whitney, roaring past favored Fierceness in the stretch. Under Flavien Prat, he turned back a strong bid from Highland Falls in deep stretch to score by one length at the wire. The victory earned Sierra Leone an automatic berth in the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), a race he won last year.

“He’s always been running in the highest level of races at Saratoga. He ran in the Travers, Belmont Stakes and such,” said winning trainer Chad Brown. “The more I looked at his numbers, I wasn’t sold that he doesn’t really like the track. I just think he hadn’t won and some of his fastest numbers as a 3-year-old were actually at Saratoga—he just didn’t get it done. As you saw in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and today, he’s a full-rounded, fully polished, fine-tuned, high-level racehorse right now.”

Champion Sierra Leone’s Steady Climb

Prat said he was pleased with Sierra Leone’s early position.

“Even if I’m in the back, at least he broke running,” Prat said. “I was traveling well all the way around. I didn’t know when I hit the three-eighths pole if I had a ton of horse. When I asked him, I cut the corner, he came underneath me nicely and when I tipped him out, he made a very good run. I think he has improved. I do think last race was basically his first race of the season, we ran into a slow pace on a fast track, so I had expectations of improvement.”

Brown hinted he may bring Sierra Leone back in the 10-furlong Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1), also a “Win and You’re In” for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, with an eye on a repeat in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Bred in Kentucky by Debby Oxley, Sierra Leone fetched $2.3 million at Fasig-Tipton’s 2022 Saratoga Select Yearling Sale. To date, he has banked more than $6.8 million and has won 5-of-12 lifetime starts.