SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - When Arthur’s Ride won a second-level allowance race by 12 3/4 lengths going 10 furlongs at Saratoga in June, trainer Bill Mott told owner Karl Glassman that the next target for the gray son of Tapit would be the Jockey Club Gold Cup here on Sept. 1. “It’s the right distance, feel good about it, but I’m gonna run him in a prep,” Glassman recalled Mott telling him. “I said ‘What’s the prep?’ And he jokingly said ‘the Whitney.’ ” On Saturday, in his stakes debut, Arthur’s Ride turned the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney into a laugher as, under Junior Alvarado, he cleared Skippylongstocking around the first turn and then led his nine pursuers on a futile chase and lumbered home a 2 1/4-length winner of one of the most prestigious races for older horses in the country. “To win the Whitney, it doesn’t get better than this,” said Glassman, who owns Arthur’s Ride with his wife Cathi. Crupi rallied from last to be second by a neck over Post Time. Disarm was fourth, followed by Skippylongstocking, the 4-5 favorite National Treasure, First Mission, Bright Future, Warrior Johny and Charge It. Il Miracolo was scratched on Friday and Tumbarumba was scratched less than an hour before post because trainer Brian Lynch didn’t want to run him over a wet track. :: Get Saratoga Clocker Reports straight from the morning workouts at the track. Available every race day. Earlier in the week, Mott had hinted that he might not run Arthur’s Ride over a sloppy surface, recalling how bad the horse ran in the slop in an allowance at Churchill in May. But Saturday’s main track at Saratoga was muddy and sealed throughout the day - not like Churchill’s track - so Mott felt fine running. “It was sealed, it was tight, nothing like the racetrack he ran on at Churchill,” Mott said. “I wish they had this racetrack at Churchill.” Arthur’s Ride’s two victories this year came when he was able to make the lead, but that was a question mark Saturday especially with National Treasure in the field. Breaking from post 9 in the 10-horse field, Alvarado hustled Arthur’s Ride toward the front, but Jose Ortiz was sending Skippylongstocking away from the gate as well. Arthur’s Ride overtook Skippylongstocking by the middle of the first turn, but had to run a quarter in 23.26 seconds to do it. “I was going to give my horse the best possible chance to win the race and I think he’s been showing when he’s on the lead he’s a different horse, so I had to go for that,” Alvarado said. Arthur’s Ride maintained a clear advantage through a half-mile in 46.63 seconds, six furlongs in 1:10.28 and a mile in 1:35.16. At that point, Alvarado said he felt like a winner. “At the quarter pole, he was still with his ears pricked and at that point I didn’t care who was coming because I knew I had plenty of horse left and when I asked him he just took off,” Alvarado said. Arthur’s Ride even took off past the wire as he got to ducking in and out and when he took a sharp right on the gallop out, Alvarado came off the horse. But he landed on his feet and maintained a tight hold of the reins before he got Arthur’s Ride pulled up. “I was in a good sixteenth-of-a-mile sprint with him, I didn’t let him go,” Alvarado said. “I couldn’t believe how fast my legs were going but I wasn’t going to let that one go.” Arthur’s Ride covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.54 (110 Beyer Speed Figure) and returned $15.60 as the third choice. He earned an automatic berth into the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 2 at Del Mar by virtue of the Breeders’ Cup’s “Win and You’re In” program. Crupi made a late run to get second, beating Post Time by a neck. National Treasure, the 4-5 favorite having won two Grade 1 races this year, finished sixth, beaten 10 lengths. Flavien Prat, National Treasure’s rider, felt his horse didn’t handle the wet track. “He didn’t feel very good on it, he was traveling, switching leads and stuff like that,” Prat said. “Usually, he’s pretty quick going into the first turn, he was not today.” It’s been a long road for Arthur’s Ride to make it to a Grade 1 stakes winner. After he won a maiden race at Gulfstream, in February 2022, Arthur’s Ride came up with a strained tendon that kept him away from the races for 13 months. Glassman credited Barry Eisaman, whose farm Eisaman Equine, in Ocala, Fla., is where he convalesced. “He wouldn’t be here without Barry, I got to give Barry all the kudos,” Glassman said. “Barry gave him time, Bill gave him time. Bill is as patient as they get.” For Mott, it was his first victory in the Whitney. Starting in 1991, Mott had run 12 horses in 11 runnings of the Whitney with three seconds and four thirds. “Much like winning any other race, it’s great, it’s a very important race,” Mott said. “It’s a Grade 1 and probably one of the top two or three races that they run in Saratoga. I’m really glad for the Glassmans.” Karl Glassman said he named the horse for his father Arthur, who died about a year-and-a-half ago. “He said ‘You didn’t have to do that. I said ‘Dad, I really did, you’ve had a great ride. He looked at me and said ‘I have.’ “ And the ride with his namesake may be only just beginning. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? 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