Jockey Club Gold Cup (Sep. 29) - Discreet Lover & Raindale Raven

The real life Jockey Club Gold Cup comes three days later than in the game. From Wikipedia: " It is typically the main event of the fall meeting at Belmont Park, just as the Belmont Stakes is of the spring meeting and the Travers Stakes is of the summer meeting at Saratoga. The past winners of the Gold Cup are a veritable who’s who of award-winning Hall of Fame horses, including Easy Goer, Man o’ War, Cigar, Skip Away, Curlin, Slew o’ Gold, John Henry, Affirmed, Forego, Shuvee, Damascus, Buckpasser, Kelso, Sword Dancer, Nashua, Citation, Whirlaway and War Admiral. Despite the current $1,000,000 purse and Grade 1 status, the stature of the race has suffered somewhat in recent years thanks to the emergence of the Breeders’ Cup Classic held not long afterward, as well as a change in distance to ​1 1â�„4 miles in 1990, reducing its distinctiveness."

[align=center]The FF Jockey Club Gold Cup info:

Date
2022-09-26

Location
Belmont

Race
Jockey Club Gold Cup (Gr. 1)

Surface
Dirt

Distance
10 furlongs

Age
3yo+

Purse
$1,000,000[/align]

Links:

2018 Jockey Club Gold Cup - Horse Racing Nation

Jockey Club Gold Cup - Wikipedia

Past winners in real life:

  • 2015 - Tonalist
  • 2016 - Hoppertunity
  • 2017 - Diversify - he may also run this year; and in the Breeder’s Cup Classic

Past Final Furlong winners:

  • 2019 - [color=blue]NCh. Llwynog, Track: Good Time: 1:59.095 SF: 239. Still a racehorse, he needs one stakes win of any grade to qualify for stud.
  • 2020 - [color=blue]Ch. Mister Sun, Track: Wet Time: 1:59.835 SF: 100. Still a racehorse, but hasn’t raced this year. He also won Godolphin Mile (2021).
  • 2021 - [color=red]Ch. Loewe, Track: Good Time: 1:45.730 SF: 265. This year she was 6th in the Dubai World Cup but also had some stakes wins.

Sending out another filly this year in the JCGC with Flaming Key. She won the G1 Coaching Club American Oaks last out so distance shouldn’t be a problem. This will be her final prep before the Breeders’ Cup (if all goes well).

I’ve got 2 who will be participating in the JCGC. First one is [color=red]Ch. Fractal, who won the 9.5f Acorn Stakes in June and placed 3rd in the 10f Travers Stakes. Considering she held her ground pretty well against some steep competition in the Travers, I’m hoping that’ll mean she’s game for another 10f this month. The second entry is [color=blue]It’s a Date, a 4YO son of FFCh. High Chances. He’s a gamble, since his only win this year is in an 8f Allowance, but he ran really well and has a good bloodline, so I felt it’d be worth the risk.

It’s today! Good luck everyone! We  have 13 horses entered, probably more than will run in real life on the 29th. In real life there is last year’s winner Diversify (who seems to be a favourite), Mendelssohn the singing horse:

twitter.com/SRiggsWDRB/status/9 … 9923535872

and Thunder Snow the horse that spooked at the puddles in 2017 Kentucky Derby:

youtube.com/watch?v=FsBdwsT560E

among (not so many) others.

Congratulations Gwen for the win with [color=red]Ch. Raindale Raven! The real life race is tomorrow; some commentary: “European Shippers vs. Diversify in the Jockey Club Gold Cup”.

Surprise! Discreet Lover wins in a photo finish, Thunder Snow comes second and Mendelssohn is third. Favourite Diversify finished 5th. Video: Discreet Lover - 2018 - The Jockey Club Gold Cup.

It was the first Grade 1 win for owner-trainer Uriah St. Lewis. Here is what he said about Discreet Lover earlier in the summer:

Uriah St Lewis Discusses Discreet Lover