Horse Profile: Meta Max

Breeders' Cup Sprint Scouting Report

(Editor's note: Originally published in the 2024 BRISnet Breeders' Cup International Report) 

Owned by Susumu Fujita, who sponsors the Sprint through his Cygames company, Meta Max is likely to be an anticlimax after Fujita’s Forever Young contests the Classic. The son of Into Mischief has yet to live up to his $1.1 million purchase price as a 2022 OBS March juvenile.

Trainer Hideyuki Mori’s best previous result in this race was a fifth with Matera Sky (2021) here, but Meta Max lacks his qualifications. He’s primarily an allowance runner whose only stakes credit is a third in last December’s Capella (G3). While that could have been a launching pad, Meta Max hasn’t gotten lift-off in his two subsequent tries at the listed level, and he reverted to the allowance ranks.

Meta Max does come off a victory on Aug. 18 at Niigata, upstaging odds-on stablemate Manibhadra who wound up fifth. The 5-1 third choice, Meta Max rallied from about midpack and held the fastest finisher by 1 1/4 lengths. Manibhadra had beaten Meta Max by daylight in their prior start at Fukushima.