Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer S.

Since dropping a head decision to Domestic Spending in the Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes in the summer of his 3-year-old year, the gambling public knows that when Gufo is in the race, a top-three finish is sure to follow. The remarkably consistent son of Declaration of War has been out of the money only twice in 19 career starts, and following his repeat victory in the Aug. 27, $750,000 Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer Stakes, Gufo has now captured Grade 1s as a 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old.

“He loves this turf here [at Saratoga Race Course],” said a breathless jockey Joel Rosario after the Sword Dancer.

Gufo, with his mammoth-sized stature and massive stride, is like an old-fashioned freight train; it takes time to get it going, but once it’s moving, it’s nearly impossible to stop. Rosario admitted he had to scrub fairly hard on the chestnut three furlongs out, but once the engine was ignited, Gufo roared past his rivals.

“He’s been a very good horse these past three years. Unfortunately, in his last race, sometimes he has a tendency to drop too far out of it,” trainer Christophe Clement said. “I took the blinkers off because he trained so forwardly earlier on in the year. As the year went on, he became lazier and lazier. Today, he had a great trip. He was never that far back and he was traveling well. When Joel [Rosario] asked him, he exploded in the stretch. I’m delighted.”

Stepping into the gate for the Sword Dancer, a race that a year Gufo claimed by a tenacious neck over European invader Japan, the 5-year-old was coming off an uncharacteristic fifth-place finish in the July 23 United Nations Stakes at Monmouth Park. Although he didn’t hit the board, he still ran respectably in defeat, beaten by only 2 1/2 lengths.

Under Rosario, the regular pilot of Gufo in his last 11 starts, Gufo settled into seventh position through most of the 1 1/2-mile journey. The steadfast front-runner Tribhuvan carved out quarter-mile splits of :24.39, :48.98, and 1:13.99 on an uncontested lead, and it wasn’t until the top of the stretch when the two-time Grade 1 winner was finally challenged and overtaken by Mira Mission.

The hard-luck Mira Mission, running a performance adjacent to his runner-up finish to Santin in the Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic in May, was nailed in the final 70 yards by the hard-charging Gufo.

“We really thought it was his day today,” jockey Julien Leparoux said of Mira Mission. “He ran a good race and tried hard. He ran a winning race and I’m very happy with the trip we had. No excuse.”

Gufo, a half-length better than Mira Mission at the finish line, ran the 1 1/2 miles in 2:28.92 on a turf course rated as good.