Mindframe holds off Sierra Leone to win Stephen Foster

Louisville, Ky.

The early pace was not all that hot Saturday in the Grade 1, $1 million Stephen Foster Stakes at Churchill Downs. So it figured a horse like Mindframe would thrive, and champion closer Sierra Leone would not.

Post-time favorite Mindframe did win the race for owners Mike Repole and Vinnie Viola, seemingly validating that flyover view of the loaded, 1 1/8-mile race that was a fitting win-and-you’re-in for the Breeders’ Cup Classic. But it was not as simple as all that.

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For one, Mindframe (9-5) went from stalking to chasing just before the half-mile pole. That was because Luis Sáez, after setting early fractions of 23.94 and 47.94 seconds, decided to hit the accelerator on pacesetter First Mission (5-2) and put some distance between him and Mindframe going into the second turn. Irad Ortiz Jr. did not panic riding Mindframe.

“I just go with the flow of the race,” said Ortiz, who has ridden all seven starts by the 4-year-old Constitution colt trained by Todd Pletcher. “My horse was traveling nice on the backside. I see a little bit of (First Mission). I know he’s a nice horse, but I thought it was a little too fast for my horse to stay close.

Through three-quarters of a mile in 1:11.46, Mindframe did not let First Mission get away. Neither did Sierra Leone (2-1), who moved from last place in the field of six older horses to a looming third.

“I figured that the pace was going to be soft,” Sierra Leone’s jockey Flavien Prat said. “But it was good. I got him going on the backside.”

Last year’s Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan (5-1) cut the corner turning for home, so he, too, stormed into the mix. Going three wide at the top of the stretch, Mindframe answered all the challenges and pulled away.

“I started asking and just put the hands down,” Ortiz said. “He started moving on his own, so I said, well, we’re in good shape.”

After going the first mile in 1:34.93, Mindframe finished with a time of 1:47.48 on the fast main track. Sierra Leone, who spun a wide fourth out of the far turn, found yet another gear in the last 100 yards to finish an impressive second, just one length behind. He had enough momentum to think another eighth of a mile, say, in defense of his 2024 Breeders’ Cup Classic victory, could produce a different result.

“I always thought if the pace was slow, I could get him going early,” Prat said. “It seems like I never hit the bottom of him, so I felt like it was something he could do.”

“It surprised me when (Sierra Leone) was right beside me at the three-eighths pole,” Ortiz said. “I said, oh, my God, he’s already here. I mean he’s a nice horse. He always closes. I have a lot of respect for him, Mystik Dan and First Mission. All of them. It’s a tough race. Tough race. But I was traveling so good at the three-eighths pole.”

First Mission settled for third, 1 1/4 lengths behind Sierra Leone. Mystik Dan was a neck back in fourth. Hit Show (11-1) was a never-threatening fifth. Ashcroft (64-1), racing in the name of retired trainer D. Wayne Lukas, came in last. Skippylongstocking was scratched.

Mindframe, whose perfect 2025 record includes wins in the Gulfstream Park Mile (G2) and the seven-furlong Churchill Downs Stakes (G1), returned $5.76, $3.34 and $2.56; Sierra Leone $3.06 and $2.34; and First Mission $2.70.

“We’re just incredibly proud of him for how he was able to stretch out his natural speed today,” Pletcher said by phone from New York. “Sierra Leone came with a huge run around the turn, and he had to hold off some top-class horses and was able to do so.”

Repole and Viola also were not at Churchill Downs on the steamy, 88-degree Saturday smack in the middle of the heatwave gripping most of the eastern half of the country. Jacob West, the bloodstock agent for Repole and Viola, took it all in at the same track where the $600,000 yearling purchase is 3-for-3.

“He’s never given us reason not to have confidence,” West said. “To do what he’s done in his career, he’s never finished worse than second. I mean he just missed in a classic (second in the 2024 Belmont Stakes) in his third lifetime start. He won a Grade 1 from seven furlongs to now nine furlongs.”

That versatility begs the question. Which Breeders’ Cup race will Mindframe start on Nov. 1 at Del Mar?

“The rest of his career is laid out between Mike and Vinnie and Todd, obviously,” West said. “But having a win-and-you’re-in right here is pretty amazing. He’s so versatile, he can do whatever he wants, whether it be the (Dirt) Mile, the Sprint, or hell, the Classic.”