BY BROCK SHRIDAN
Saffie Joseph Jr. entered Breeders’ Cup week having won 28 graded stakes races in 2026, including seven Grade 1 races and seven Grade 2 races. Since 2024, Joseph has saddled 59 graded stakes winners.
But if you asked him just two years ago if he thought the Florida-bred R Disaster would be one of those 59 winners, you might have gotten a surprising answer.
“I couldn’t say I ever envisioned her reaching these heights when she came to us,” Joseph admitted earlier this week. “Even after she started winning some races I couldn’t ever have said that.”
Joseph, who has won 16 consecutive training titles at Gulfstream, is no longer surprised at anything the R Disaster does. The 5-year-old mare enters Saturday’s $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (Grade 1) at Keeneland with 10 victories in 18 starts, a bankroll of $1.4 million, and having defender her title earlier this month in the Gallant Bloom (G2).
“She’s had a stellar career and actually she just keeps improving,” Joseph said.
Owned by Rich Averill of Bradenton, Florida in the name of his Averill Racing LLC, Anthony Mattera’s ATM Racing based in Palm City, Florida and Sol Kumin’s of New York City and his Madaket Stables, R Disaster broke her maiden on muddy track at Gulfstream in her second start in August of 2024. She then won an $80,000 claiming event at Churchill Downs, a first condition, $20,000 optional claiming at Gulfstream, and finishing her 3-year-old year with a second in the $100,000 City of Ocala division of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association Florida Stakes at Tampa, the last two restricted races.
But as Joseph said, R Disaster has continued to improve throughout her career. A daughter of Ocala Stud’s Awesome Slew out of the Florida-bred Gottcha Gold mare Making Havoc, a a winner of eight of 41 races and $335,425, R Disaster has been a model of consistency against top levels sprinters throughout the U.S. She’s won stakes at Saratoga Race Course, Churchill Downs, Belmont Park, Aqueduct, Gulfstream Park and Delaware Park and has placed worse than third only once in her remarkable career.
R Disaster began her 5-year-old season with the victory in Gulfstream’s Hurricane Bertie (G3), finished third in the Resolute Racing Madison (G1) at Keeneland in April then took the Derby City Distaff presented by Ford (G1) at Churchill Downs in May.
She missed a planned start in the Honorable Miss (G2) in July due to a hind foot and returned at Saratoga on August 29 in the Resorts World Casino Ballerina (G1) but finished sixth, her only off-the-board finish, before winning the Gallant Bloom gate to wire.
“The Ballerina was about fitness, she needed the race after being off,” Joseph said. “But [the Gallant Bloom] she traveled well, and she’s doing really well now. She’ll need her top effort, hopefully, if she’s going to do well [in the Breeders’ Cup].”
An out-of-state victory in a Grade 1 by R Disaster would produce a $7,500 Export Incentive for breeder Ocala Stud and FTBOA Hall of Fame member J. Michael O’Farrell Jr.
She has post four, is 8-1 on the morning line and Tyler Gaffalione has the riding assignment.
R Disaster’s competition in the seven-furlong sprint includes Ballerina-winner Ways and Means, an earner of $1,637,500 who also counts a victory in the Bed o’ Roses presented by Boldyn Networks (G2) in her last two starts for trainer Chad Brown and owner Seth Klarmin’s Klaravich Stables.
Ways and Means has post two, jockey Flavien Prat and is the 7-5 morning line favorite.
Trainer Bob Baffert enters Test (G1)-winner Explora, who was second to Conceit in the Grade 3 Dogwood last out at Churchill Downs on September 19; and Florida-bred Nooni, a winner of two optional claimings in Kentucky in her last two races.
Explora is 4-1 in the program and will be ridden from post 11 by Jose Ortiz. Nooni will begin from the No. 13 slot, is 30-1 on the morning line and Mario Gutierrez takes the call.
Rounding out the field are Look Forward with Umberto Rispoli in the saddle, Praying will have John Velazquez aboard, Ricardo Santana Jr. will steer Foie Gras, Majestic Oops and jockey Francisco Arrieta, Evanescence teams with Luis Saez, Edwin Gonzalez teams with Kerry’s Kiss, Sweet Azteca will have Juan Hernandez in the irons, Manny Franco in named on Simply Joking and Javier Castellano has the engagement on Kilwin.
Return to the October 28 issue of Wire to Wire
