Saratoga Derby will offer automatic berth in Australia's Cox Plate

The New York Racing Association and Moonee Valley Racing Club announced the Grade 1, $600,000 Saratoga Derby Invitational, slated for Aug. 5 at Saratoga, will offer the winner an automatic berth into the Group 1 Cox Plate (G1).

The new lucrative partnership will provide the winner of the Saratoga Derby, a 1 3/16-mile test for sophomores, a place in the starting gate for the Cox Plate on Oct. 28 at Moonee Valley in Melbourne, Australia, with winning connections afforded subsidies for transportation and accommodation.

The Saratoga Derby is the second leg of a three-race turf invitational series for 3-year-olds on the NYRA circuit that includes the Belmont Derby (G1) and the 11-furlong Jockey Club Derby (G3).

The first leg of the series, the Belmont Derby over 1 1/4 miles, runs Saturday, and the winner will be invited to run in the Saratoga Derby.

In 2021, Joseph O’Brien’s colt State of Rest won the Saratoga Derby before coming to Melbourne to win the Cox Plate, defeating subsequential 2022 winner Anamoe in a thrilling finish.

State of Rest later returned to Europe and won the Prix Ganay (G1) in France and the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot, achieving the incredible feat of winning four Group 1 races in four countries. State of Rest is now a resident stallion at Newgate.

Aidan O’Brien followed a similar pathway in 2014 when training the first ever international winner of the W.S. Cox Plate, Adelaide. Adelaide finished second in the Belmont Derby and won the Secretariat Stakes (G1) in the U.S. before famously winning the W.S. Cox Plate with champion jockey Ryan Moore on board.

?The field for the Saratoga Derby will be drawn on Wednesday, Aug. 2.