Just days after completing a ninth-consecutive Trainers' Championship triumph at Florida’s Gulfstream Park, Barbadian Saffie Joseph Jnr, kicked off the new season with a double on Thursday’s opening day of the Spring/Summer meet.

Joseph won the fourth and sixth races, the richest on the eight-race card. In the US$60,000 Maiden Special Weight fourth race, Joseph’s four-year-old filly Divine won with Edwin Gonzalez aboard as the 3-2 favourite. Joseph completed the double with 2-1 bet Imonra in the US$62,000 Allowance Optional Claiming sixth race with Paco Lopez riding.

The Spring/Summer meet, which Joseph has won for the past four consecutive years since 2020, runs until September 29.

Joseph is currently ranked eighth on the 2024 trainers’ list in all of North America with horses’ earnings of US$3.07 million.

Reflecting on his championship feat which he wrapped up last weekend, Joseph attributed the win to the quality of his team. The 37-year-old ended the campaign with 66 winners and in excess of US $3.4 million in purse earnings, once again ahead of Hall-of-Famer Todd Pletcher, who finished second with 37 winners.

“We’re always trying to get better, and to win a third championship meet in a row was very gratifying for all the work that the staff put in, and that’s what puts me in this position. I have a good team that works hard and we try to do it together. And the owners that supply these horses, the horses are the backbone and the big piece of the puzzle," Joseph said.

“We’ve got quality and we’ve got quantity, and that’s what you need to win titles and to stay relevant in today’s industry. You’ve got to keep winning. That’s what people want," he added.

White Abarrio is carrying maximum stable confidence into the $20million Saudi Cup at the King Abdulaziz Racecourse on Saturday.

The striking grey was last seen winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita in November, making it two Grade Ones in three starts for Rick Dutrow since moving from Saffie Joseph.

And Dutrow – who has returned to the big-race limelight after enduring a 10-year suspension imposed for medication and administration violations that forced him to build again from scratch – sees the world’s most valuable race as tailor-made for his charge, who will again be ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr.

“All the work has been done with him and he’s in a zone that I wish every horse that ever lived was in that kind of zone,” said Dutrow.

“We just made a couple of minor adjustments with him (after he switched yards), they just happened to work out really well.

“I think the glue-on shoes sealed the deal for him. We did that after his Met Mile run, we knew we needed to make some kind of changes with his front feet, because he wasn’t level, wasn’t even.

“He ran a big race that day (Met Mile, third), we were extremely happy with how he finished his race. Then we went with the glue-ons, then we knew we were training better. The riders could just feel he was better.

“I feel if he is on his game and runs his race, he is going to be tough to beat.

“This race, a mile and an eighth (nine furlongs), around one turn…I feel as if he were to wake up in the morning and we were to ask him, ‘Hey babe, what do you wanna do for a $20million race?’, he’d say, ‘Make it a mile and an eighth around one turn’.”

Dutrow stressed he was “all in” on the Saudi Cup – but would love to go on from Riyadh to Dubai for the Dubai World Cup.

“We’re so excited to do something like that, but it’s going to be up to him. I want him to have an easy race here – I shouldn’t be saying that, because there’s so many good horses here. How are we expecting to have an easy race?” Dutrow said.

“We have a really good horse and he is on it, that’s what I’m hoping for. We’ll have a little chat with Irad, our main goal is to win and our second main goal is to save horse for his next race. If we can get those things done, we’re going to be excited going to Dubai.”

The five-year-old drew stall two at the post-position ceremony on Wednesday, with that doing little to dent confidence.

“He had the two-hole (in the Classic) last time, this can’t be a problem,” Dutrow said. “We’ve got the best rider, one of the best horses. It’ll be fun. We’ll be ready. He really takes my breath away every time I see him.”

Leading the opposition is the Hidetaka Otonashi-trained Derma Sotogake for Japan – just a length adrift of White Abarrio when second in the Classic.

He reportedly suffered a minor injury scare on the flight over, but rider Christophe Lemaire is happy with what he has seen.

“The horse has got more mature, stronger, I think. He looks happy here, so I’m very confident,” he said.

“He was still young last year as a three-year-old, as a four-year-old he’ll get better and better. He didn’t run much last year, of course they were tough races, but he’s the kind of horse who keeps himself safe, he still has many things to show us.

“The field will be very strong, but he’s a tough horse, he’s able to jump well from the gates and take a position, he can keep a strong pace.”

Otonashi said: “The accident during the flight is the only concern but we did everything we could have done. He is in good form.”

Bob Baffert has yet to win the race but has come close, with Charlatan the length runner-up to the John and Thady Gosden-trained Mishriff in 2021, while Country Grammer was half a length down on Emblem Road in 2022 and three-parts of a length second to Panthalassa 12 months ago, when ridden by Frankie Dettori.

His runner this time is National Treasure, winner of last year’s Preakness and second in the Dirt Mile at the Breeders’ Cup, before reappearing in the Pegasus World Cup, holding on to score from Senor Buscador, who reopposes for Todd Fincher.

Baffert’s assistant Jimmy Barnes said: “He has matured into a fine horse. He likes to be on the pace, that’s clear, but he was able to back off a little when he won the Pegasus last month.

“If there is a speed battle in this race, we feel he will still be able to get the right trip under a strong rider (Flavien Prat).

“He has a good post to work from in seven. This is our fifth runner in this race, we have been second three times, so we are hoping to make the breakthrough.”

Barbadian trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. landed his third career US$1 million win in North American thoroughbred racing when his four-year-old colt Skippylongstocking captured the Charles Town Classic at Charles Town racetrack in West Virginia last Friday evening.

Ridden by Tyler Gaffalione, Skippylongstocking dominated from the start and won comfortably by five lengths as the 7-5 favourite. The 10-1 bet, O’Connor, also trained by the 36-year-old Joseph, ran on late to get second, giving Florida’s number-one trainer a 1-2 finish in the Classic, the richest on Friday’s 13-race card that had nine stakes races.

In 18 previous starts, Skippylongstocking never led his field but he broke smartly for a clear lead at the first turn, and with the projected pacesetter Giant Game well off the pace, Gaffalione went with the flow setting the early fractions, coasting through a half-mile in 48.88 seconds and six furlongs in 1:14.17.

“I was surprised to see him on the lead (but) then the fractions were reasonable enough,” said Florida-based Joseph who had previous US$1 million stakes wins with Math Wizard in the 2019 Pennsylvania Derby and White Abarrio in last year’s Florida Derby.

When Gaffalione roused the colt at the quarter pole, the two-time 2022 Triple Crown entrant Skippylongstocking opened up and galloped home a big winner. Last year’s Belmont Stakes third-placer who was fifth in the Preakness, was timed in 1:51.37 for 1 1/8 miles.

This was the colt’s second major win in West Virginia following his West Virginia Derby victory at Mountaineer Park last summer.

Joseph currently has 899 career wins in North America including 76 stakes victories, eight this year. He completed this past weekend a remarkable seventh consecutive trainers’ title win at Florida’s Gulfstream Park, completing the Spring/Summer meet with a colony-leading 66 wins, 11 ahead of nearest rival Jose D’Angelo (55).