When it comes to Mindframe’s last “race,” it’s a matter of perspective.

Technically, the 4-year-old’s most recent start was in the Aug. 31 Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes at Saratoga Race Course, when he did not finish first or second for the only time in his eight-race career.

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More to the point, Mindframe didn’t finish at all in the Jockey Club Gold Cup as he was bumped hard shortly after the start and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. was tossed from the saddle. Fortunately, neither rider nor horse suffered a serious injury in the frightening incident that saw Mindframe circle the track without a jockey before he was caught by outriders.

What was supposed to be a final major prep for the Nov. 1 Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic turned into a scary gallop, as well as Mindframe’s final “race” before the World Championships.

Up next for the Todd Pletcher-trained Midframe is the Longines Classic at Del Mar, where the son of Constitution will be joined by stablemate Fierceness, who won last month’s Pacific Classic Stakes and was second in the 2024 Longines Classic for Pletcher and co-owner Mike Repole, both of those efforts coming at Del Mar.

“They both breezed last week. They were easy breezes in their first works after their races,” Pletcher said.

While it was a no-brainer to train Fierceness up to the Classic, Pletcher weighed his options with the multiple Grade 1-winning Mindframe (owned by Repole and Vincent Viola) before deciding against racing him before the World Championships.

“We felt even though (the Jockey Club Gold Cup) wasn’t a true race, he still ran around there for a mile and an eighth (after the incident) and with the goal being having him at his very best on Classic day, we didn’t believe running him back would necessarily achieve that,” Pletcher said.

Irad Ortiz is unseated from Mindframe in TJGC. (Skip Dickstein courtesy Albany Times-Union)

The JCGC marked Mindframe’s first loss of the year after three straight wins, including victories in the Stephen Foster Stakes and Churchill Downs Stakes Presented by Ford.

Fierceness, the 2023 champion 2-year-old male, rebounded from a fifth in the Whitney Stakes to take the mile-and-a-quarter Pacific Classic Aug. 30 by 3 ¼ lengths over the 3-year-old Preakness Stakes winner Journalism.

“I thought Fierceness handled the trip out there really well. He held his weight, and he’s showing good energy now,” Pletcher said about the son of City of Light.

Pletcher said he plans to continue training both 4-year-olds at Saratoga before shipping them west the week of the Breeders’ Cup.

Pletcher is also in an enviable position for the Breeders’ Cup juvenile dirt races with Spendthrift Farm’s Hopeful Stakes victor Ted Noffey and Spinaway Stakes winner Tommy Jo. The Into Mischief offspring are scheduled to run next in two-turn, mile-and-a-sixteenth Grade 1 stakes at Keeneland Race Course.

“Those were big wins for them at Saratoga, and they were both impressive doing it,” Pletcher said. “I like the idea of taking them to Keeneland to get them two-turn experience.”

Tommy Jo is scheduled to run Oct. 3 in the Darley Alcibiades Stakes with Ted Noffey targeting the Oct. 4 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity.

“The way he finished and galloped out full of energy in the Hopeful indicates that he should handle the added distance,” Pletcher said about Ted Noffey.