{"id":400703,"date":"2025-09-05T19:03:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T19:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/400703\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T19:03:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T19:03:14","slug":"sierra-leone-came-out-of-the-gold-cup-in-good-order-and-will-make-his-farewell-in-the-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/400703\/","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Leone came out of the Gold Cup in good order and will make his farewell in the Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"

The champion 3-year-old of 2024 finished second at Saratoga after a troubled trip and will have his final start at Del Mar<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Sierra<\/p>\n

Sierra Leone targets the Classic double<\/strong> <\/strong>\/ ADAM COGLIANESE \/ NYRA<\/p>\n

SARATOGA SPRINGS, New York (Special for Turf Diario).- Champion 3-year-old of 2024\u00a0Sierra Leone (Gun Runner)<\/strong>\u00a0once again showed why he remains among the very best of his generation, rallying strongly to finish second in Sunday\u2019s\u00a0GI Jockey Club Gold Cup<\/strong>\u00a0at Saratoga despite a trip that all but eliminated his chances from the break.<\/p>\n

With\u00a0Flavien Prat<\/strong>\u00a0aboard, the\u00a0Peter Brant, Coolmore and partners<\/strong>\u00a0runner left the gate last, forced to alter course immediately to avoid the fallen\u00a0Irad Ortiz Jr.<\/strong>, unseated from\u00a0Mindframe (Constitution)<\/strong>\u00a0in an incident that involved several horses. Sierra Leone found himself more than 18 lengths off the pace, racing wide throughout, but unleashed his trademark late kick in the stretch to get within 1 1\/2 lengths of winner\u00a0Antiquarian (Preservationist)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Trainer\u00a0Chad Brown<\/strong>\u00a0was relieved and encouraged by what he saw.\u201cFortunately, Irad came out without any serious injuries and our horses are fine,\u201d Brown said. \u201cSierra Leone was very wide on the turn and had a very complicated trip, but I\u2019m very proud of how he persevered, stayed in the race and ran a tremendous effort. This was his final prep for the\u00a0GI Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic<\/strong>, and now we\u2019re looking forward to a couple of quiet, healthy months into Del Mar.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Classic, set for Nov. 2 at Del Mar, will mark Sierra Leone\u2019s career finale before beginning stallion duties at\u00a0Ashford Stud<\/strong>. From 13 starts, he has compiled five wins, five seconds and three thirds, with earnings of more than $7 million.<\/p>\n

Winner of the\u00a0GI Blue Grass S.<\/strong>\u00a0at Keeneland, Sierra Leone finished second in the\u00a0GI Kentucky Derby<\/strong>, third in the\u00a0GI Belmont S.<\/strong>, and consistently placed at the highest level, highlighted by his crowning achievement in last year\u2019s\u00a0GI Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic<\/strong>, where he defeated\u00a0Fierceness (City of Light)<\/strong>\u00a0and Japan\u2019s\u00a0Forever Young (Real Steel)<\/strong>\u00a0to secure his Eclipse Award title.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an ultra-consistent horse who shows up every single time,\u201d Brown summed up. \u201cWe\u2019re hopeful he\u2019ll go out the same way he\u2019s always run.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The champion 3-year-old of 2024 finished second at Saratoga after a troubled trip and will have his final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-400703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115153247254187055","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}