With the $1 million Whitney Stakes (G1) fast approaching at Saratoga Race Course Aug. 2, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. was hoping for an easy final workout for four-time grade 1 winner White Abarrio. Although he got his wish once the 6-year-old son of Race Day made his way around Saratoga’s main track July 28, the path to actually completing the breeze was anything but easy.
Originally scheduled for July 27, White Abarrio’s work was delayed a day as torrential downpours throughout the morning turned the track to mud. The sun was shining bright on a dry track Monday morning, but just as White Abarrio and workmate Absolute Honor exited the clubhouse turn to enter the backstretch, the track siren went off to alert of an incident occurring elsewhere on the track with another horse.
Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., who is scheduled to ride the big gray Saturday, was forced to wind down and, by the time the delay had ended, White Abarrio and Absolute Honor did a second take of their jog to the frontside.
Once finally uninterrupted, White Abarrio eased into his breeze outside of the workmate and clicked off three furlongs in :35.43. According to Joseph, he galloped out a half-mile in :47 3/5.
“That was the plan to let him go three (furlongs), let him run a little bit,” the trainer said. “If the workmate wasn’t doing enough, he would go on. If the workmate was doing enough, he’d stay with the workmate. They were doing enough. … Good work for a final work and happy with him.”
White Abarrio won the Whitney two years ago under the care of trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. en route to his victory in the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1). Just as he did that year, he enters the Whitney off a defeat in the one-mile Metropolitan Handicap (G1).
Prior to the Met Mile, the horse owned by C2 Racing Stable, Gary Barber, and La Milagrosa Stable appeared to be in career-best form since rejoining Joseph’s barn in the fall. Starting 2025 with back-to-back wins in the Pegasus World Cup (G1) and Ghostzapper Stakes (G3), Joseph is hopeful that stretching back out will return his horse to his winning ways.
“We just have to move forward,” Joseph said. “I can’t use (the Met Mile's distance) as an excuse totally—it could be—but we just have to move forward off this race.”
The former Breeders’ Cup winner faces a tough test in a race fitting of its Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series status. Included in the field are last year's 1-2 finishers of the Classic, Sierra Leone and Fierceness, as well as Joseph-trained stablemate Skippylongstocking, among others.
“We would like to win, obviously that’s the result we want, but he needs to run well,” Joseph said. “Even if he didn’t win and he ran well, we’d be pleased with that. It is an important race for the rest of the year. We hope to win it. If he runs his best, he’s definitely capable of doing it.”
