Just across the road from where Gainesway’s 2025 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale offerings are showing out of Barn 6, Gainesway graduate Sierra Leone added another Grade 1 to his resume on Saturday with a win in the Whitney S. (G1).
Selling for a sale topping $2.3 million with Gainesway at Saratoga in 2022, last year’s Champion 3-Year-Old Male was making his third start of the year in the 1 1/8-mile race. Sierra Leone was happy to take up his spot as the back marker quickly after the break as two horses dueled far in front of the field.
Joined in the back by one other horse, Sierra Leone wasn’t in a hurry to make his move with Flavien Pray letting him go at his own pace. Once they hit the turn, the tone changed and Sierra Leone started circling the field to be within striking distance at the top of the stretch.
Sierra Leone had work to do to get the lead with Highland Falls battling alongside him, but Sierra Leone wasn’t backing down and won by a length.
SIERRA LEONE wins the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes!
Last year’s @BreedersCup Classic champ books his return with a “Win and You’re In” score under Flavien Prat for trainer Chad Brown! pic.twitter.com/Rh8BnPLdD7
— NYRA (🎪) (@TheNYRA) August 2, 2025
“I think he has improved. I think he has improved from last year. I do think last race was basically his first race of the season, we ran into a slow pace on a fast track, so I had expectations of improvement,” said Prat.
Trained by Chad Brown for Peter Brant, Westerberg, Brook Smith, and the Coolmore partners, this was the fifth career win for the Gainesway graduate. Among the others on his resume are the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) and Blue Grass S. (G1) with seconds in the Kentucky Derby (G1) and the Stephen Foster (G1) and thirds in the Belmont S. (G1) and Travers S. (G1) in his Grade 1 starts.
The Debby Oxley-bred Sierra Leone is one of two runners out of Grade 1 winner Heavenly Love. That mare is a half-sister to Grade 2 winner Forever Darling, whose Grade 1 winning son Forever Young finished one spot behind Sierra Leone in last year’s Kentucky Derby. This is also the family of Japanese Hordse of the Year Zenno Rob Roy.
Gainesway offers another Gun Runner at this year’s sale with the filly out of the great Shedaresthedevil selling as Hip 200. The consignment also includes a yearling colt by Gun Runner’s sire Candy Ride as Hip 188. Find details on Gainesway’s 2025 consignment here.