Nysos, trained by Bob Baffert, was installed as the 9-5 morning-line favorite for Saturday’s Hill ‘N’ Dale Metropolitan Handicap at Saratoga Race Course, the seven-horse, $1 million Grade 1 Met Mile scheduled as Race 11 with a 5:32 p.m. ET post time.
The favorite tag leans on hard form: Nysos has seven wins and two seconds in nine lifetime outings, including a victory in last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. He most recently finished second, beaten a length by Forever Young in the $20 million Saudi Cup at 1 1/8 miles, a result that kept him prominent in early Met Mile wagering.
That record and recent international run make him the horse to beat at a mile. The Met Mile is a Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win and You’re In” event and long has been a proving ground for elite older dirt males — three of the last four winners went on to Eclipse Awards as champion older dirt male, and the race routinely sketches the division’s pecking order.
The matchup on paper is compact. Journalism is listed at 5-2, Knightsbridge at 7-2, Antiquarian at 6-1 and Saudi Crown at 8-1; the field totals seven. Baffert, who trained Mor Spirit to the Met Mile in 2017 and National Treasure in 2024, brings experience as much as firepower to the morning-line favorite.
Under the surface of the odds there is friction. Knightsbridge sits as the 7-2 third choice in the market, but handicapper and pick-writer Michelle Yu says she is “completely” fading him despite that price. Yu also says she is high on a longshot she calls an "up-and-comer," a pick she has not publicly identified, a dissent that could shift late money if other bettors follow.
Practical considerations will matter when the gates open. Nysos’s Saudi Cup effort came at 1 1/8 miles, and the Met Mile cuts him back in distance; his Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile victory shows his one-turn ability, but pace shape and trip will determine whether he can out-accelerate opponents who have shorter-route form. The compact seven-horse field increases tactical importance: position and speed could decide a tight finish.
For bettors and viewers the overlay will be how the tote resolves two competing signals — Nysos’s sparkling win-and-place rate and high-profile Saudi Cup assignment versus the market support for Knightsbridge and Yu’s visible refusal to back that horse. Yu’s endorsement of an unnamed longshot is the clearest late-market wildcard; if she reveals that pick before post time, it can pull wagers away from the chalks and alter the prize-money math.
The Met Mile runs Saturday, June 6 at Saratoga Race Course as Race 11 at 5:32 p.m. ET. Nysos’s form and Baffert’s Met Mile history make him the logical favorite; the single most consequential unanswered question before the gates open is which longshot Michelle Yu is backing — that disclosure, or lack of it, will shape how the race is bet and possibly how it is run.
