Saratoga Exacta Picks & Plays | Whitney Stakes 2024

Dr. Miranda gives her Whitney Stakes (G1) exacta picks & plays from the 2024 running at Saratoga Race Course.

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Godolphin’s 4-year-old Kentucky homebred First Mission is lining up Saturday to see if his third mission to capture a Grade 1 win will be a successful one in the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney, a nine-furlong test for older horses at Saratoga Race Course.

The Whitney offers a “Win and You’re In” berth to the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic in November at Del Mar.

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The Brad Cox trainee burst onto the scene as a 3-year-old last March when he smashed a 1 1/16-mile maiden field at Fair Grounds by 6 3/4 lengths. He followed with a rail-skimming win in the Grade 3 Lexington at Keeneland over eventual Grade 1-winner Arabian Lion and fellow Whitney entrant Disarm.

Cox entered the Street Sense colt in the Grade 1 Preakness but had to scratch after First Mission sustained a left hind ankle injury that caused him to take the remainder of the spring and summer off. He reasserted himself as a serious horse in his October comeback, winning an allowance optional claiming race at Keeneland by a neck after overcoming traffic trouble in the stretch.

First Mission has since contested solely stakes company, falling a nose short to Trademark in the Grade 2 Clark in November at Churchill Downs before failing to fire in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup in January at Gulfstream Park to begin his 4-year-old campaign.

He took down both the Grade 3 Essex in March at Oaklawn Park and Grade 2 Alysheba in May at Churchill before trying Grade 1 company again in the Stephen Foster on June 29. There, he went to the front immediately out of the gate and was headed in the stretch before fading to fourth beaten 3 1/4-lengths by Kingsbarns and just behind Whitney contender Skippylongstocking.

Cox said First Mission will look to employ different tactics Saturday.

“Our hope is to let them run away from him and try to just come running at the end,” Cox said. “We’ll see if that works out better than last time when we put him on the lead. We’ll see if he will go by horses.”

Cox said he decided to switch tactics after a number of forward types entered, including Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s last-out Grade 1 Hill ‘n’ Dale Metropolitan Handicap-winner National Treasure and impressive last-out gate-to-wire optional-claiming victor Arthur’s Ride for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.

“The Mott horse and National Treasure will both be going so hopefully they soften each other up and we can come running down the lane,” Cox said.

First Mission will break from post 5 under returning rider Florent Geroux.

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