Vequist didn’t bother with a slow procession up the class ladder as the usual baby steps just wouldn’t work for the juvenile daughter of a Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup champion. The daughter of Nyquist did this whole maiden-breaking thing backward. She finished second in her first race – a […]
Tag: Saratoga
Top Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. Latest Rider Testing Positive for COVID-19
Two-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. became the latest high-profile jockey testing positive for COVID-19. As a result, Ortiz goes back on the shelf for at least 10 days. The Daily Racing Form reported that Ortiz took the test Monday at his current Saratoga Springs, New York, residence. His […]
Star Sprinter Volatile Retires to Stud After Breaking Bone
Volatile, the standout sprinter who set records on numerous tracks, broke a bone in his leg Monday and immediately retired from racing. Considered the top sprinter in America, Volatile suffered a hairline fracture of his right front cannon bone. The injury, while not life-threatening, ends Volatile’s dynamic racing career and […]
No Fans? No Problem as Saratoga Surpasses $700 Million in 2020 Handle
Bettors proved they could handle the magic of Saratoga’s racing season without being at Saratoga, passing the $700 million mark in all-sources handle for the second consecutive year. The numbers for the 40-day 2020 Saratoga meet remained surprisingly strong, despite the lack of fans due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Saratoga […]
There’s A Prominent Race Outside Kentucky: The Woodward Stakes
One of Saturday’s most prestigious races goes 1 ¼ miles and features the likes of Seattle Slew, Affirmed, Spectacular Bid and Pleasant Colony on its winner’s roll. That would be the Woodward Stakes at Saratoga, not the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. Even with the Derby sucking the racing and […]
Whitmore Returns to Take On High-Grade Field in Forego Stakes
Do you go with the crafty veteran, Whitmore, he of the 14 wins in 35 races? Or do you forego that lukewarm favorite in the Grade 1 Forego Stakes and bet on Funny Guy? What about foregoing Funny Guy and playing betting brain games with Mind Control or Complexity? The […]
Deep Diana Stakes Field In Danger of Another Brown-Out
First, there’s the presence of trainer Chad Brown, who has a hammerlock on the Diana Stakes. Then, there’s one of the best non-Breeders’ Cup fields you’ll see all year. That’s how you get a race as competitive as the Grade 1 Diana Stakes, Sunday’s marquee race at Saratoga – and […]
Ward Opens His Juvenile Playpen for the Skidmore Stakes
Unlike many of his contemporaries, trainer Wesley Ward has no problem turning his charges loose against each other. This explains why you’ll see three of his standout 2-year-olds tangle in the Skidmore Stakes at Saratoga Friday afternoon. The 5 ½-furlong turf sprint features Fauci, Golden Pal, and Sunny Isle Beach […]
NYRA Reduces Belmont, Aqueduct Meet Dates, Reports Financial Stability
Despite reducing race days for the Belmont Park fall meet and the Aqueduct winter meet, the New York Racing Association told New York state regulators it can financially operate under current conditions into the first half of 2021. The concerns about NYRA’s financial viability came because of the coronavirus pandemic, […]
Alabama Stakes Takes Fillies on a Long Distance Runaround
Saturday’s Grade 1 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga gives you another glimpse of standout filly Swiss Skydiver, who figures to take most of the money and figures to go off at odds-on. It also gives you a rare glimpse of fillies doing something few American fillies and mares do – run […]
Gamine Faces Her Latest Question — at Saratoga’s Test Stakes
Gamine has passed every test facing her on the track: breaking her maiden, winning an allowance, and romping to a near-record time in her first Grade 1. So Saturday’s Grade 1 Test Stakes at Saratoga is a natural for the 3-year-old, Bob Baffert-trained filly. A seven-furlong sprint for 3-year-old fillies, […]
Upstarts, Baffert Star All Chasing Travers Stakes Favorite Tiz the Law
The reigning Belmont Stakes victor is in the field as your deserved race favorite. So is one member of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s 3-year-old Derby Legion of Doom. And so are a wealth of upstarts seeking to make Saturday’s Grade 1 Travers Stakes another trip into Saratoga’s “Graveyard […]
Baffert’s Latest 3-Year-Old Star Seeks to Make Rivals Cry ‘Uncle’
The legacy Uncle Chuck faces in only his third start — and first Grade 1 stakes race — can be found in the Travers Stakes record book. You only have to go back four years to Arrogate’s performance in the 2016 Travers to find it. It’s one of the many […]
More Distance, Time Off: None of it Fazes Travers Favorite Tiz the Law
He’s back and he’s back as the even-money – for now — favorite. And lest you think Tiz the Law can’t handle the 1 ¼-mile distance he faces for the first time in Saturday’s Grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga, trainer Barclay Tagg is here to disabuse you of that […]
Long Shots or Favorites, Castellano Puts Them in Travers Winner’s Circle
Javier Castellano owns more Travers Stakes victories – six – than any other jockey in the history of that prestigious race. But in the summer of 2015, Castellano and Keen Ice had a tough problem awaiting them in the Travers Stakes starting gate. His name was American Pharoah and he […]
Saratoga Enjoys Record Whitney Day Handle, Memorable Upsets
Thanks to the coronavirus, this was not a typical Whitney Day crowd at Saratoga, because there was no Whitney Day crowd. Even so, that didn’t prevent the track from setting an all-sources handle record of $35,796,435. That bested the previous record of $31,835,863, set last year when Saratoga welcomed 40,791 […]
The Whitney: Where History and Horse Racing Meet
It’s appropriate that in a race named after one of America’s most prominent families, the field consists of five millionaires. Yes, Saturday’s $1,200,000 Grade 1 1 1/8-mile Whitney Stakes at Saratoga, one of the most prestigious races for older horses in North America, features only five horses. But quality abounds. […]
Sign Midnight Bisou Up for Easy Victory in Personal Ensign Stakes
Put yourself in Motion Emotion’s hooves for the moment. You’ve held off the entire Fleur de Lis Stakes field coming around Churchill Downs’ far turn, and a quarter-mile remains between you and your first stakes victory. Then, all of a sudden, you get passed like you’re standing still. Courtesy of […]
Sprinter No Parole Proves Tough to Catch, Tougher to Cage
There it sits, like a glaring black mark on No Parole’s otherwise pristine record. The “8†under “results†standing out among the five “1s.†The horse racing definition of a burp in No Parole’s otherwise stellar universe, which he’ll put to the test in Saturday’s H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes […]
Saturday at Saratoga Provides a Bettor’s Feast of Stakes
Curious about 3-year-old colts? Saratoga has a stakes for that. How about fillies and mares? It has a race for them as well, including the best mare in the world. Older, accomplished horses? Well, they have not one, but two stakes races for them, too. Saturday at Saratoga is Mecca […]