SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Arriving just in time at the wire, Elite Power (Curlin) added to Bill Mott's massive resume of Grade I triumphs Saturday and yet another birthday victory to his remarkable total at Saratoga Race Course. With his thrilling come-from-behind score by a head over Gunite (Gun Runner) Saturday in the GI Alfred [...]

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.  – Jockey Jose Ortiz's return to competition at Saratoga Race Course Wednesday was very rewarding with three victories…and taxing. Ortiz was unseated and fell hard to the ground when his horse clipped heels in the first race of Friday's card. He was sent to Albany Medical Center where he was found to [...]

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Four days after his second-place finish in the GI Haskell S., GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) took some small, easy steps toward the GI Travers on Aug. 26, jogging Wednesday on the Oklahoma training track. Mage shipped from Monmouth Park in New Jersey to Saratoga on Monday and was [...]

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After watching GIII Schuylerville S. winner Becky's Joker (Practical Joke) work a bullet half-mile Wednesday, trainer Gary Contessa said he may buck convention, take a step back in time and run her in the GIII Adirondack on Aug. 6. Becky's Joker turned in a stunning performance on opening day, July 13, [...]

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After nine days of racing, Linda Rice has already had a Saratoga season most trainers would consider a roaring success. Rice starts the third week of the meet Wednesday atop the trainers' table with 10 victories, one up on two-time defending champ Chad Brown and two ahead of Todd Pletcher, a [...]

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – On the Whitney Day card with three Grade I races, the GIII Troy S. is pretty easy to overlook. Last year, though, two-time Breeders' Cup race winner Golden Pal (Uncle Mo) drew attention to the 5 1/2-furlong turf test, which he won by a head. On Aug. 5, Caravel (Mizzen Mast) [...]

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable's  Forte (Violence) worked in blinkers Saturday morning at Saratoga Race Course and Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher said the colt will have them on in the GII Jim Dandy on July 29. “We just want to get him a little bit more locked in,” [...]

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – While many of the horses that Arcangelo (Arrogate) will face in the GI Travers S. on Aug. 26 are competing this weekend and next, trainer Jena Antonucci is midway through a deliberate, no-race prep program for her GI Belmont S. winner. Antonucci and her pups Lucy and Mando completed the second [...]

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Though Rigney Racing's Played Hard (Into Mischief) will miss the GII Shuvee because of a fever, trainer Phillip Bauer said Friday that she might run in the GI Personal Ensign on Aug. 25. Bauer said it's a moving target that he could set his sights on. “We'll hopefully get time to [...]

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – While Clairiere (Curlin) and Nest (Curlin) are in the spotlight, attracting most of the attention in the runup to the GII Shuvee S. on Sunday, Played Hard (Into Mischief) is, well, lurking. Stonestreet Stable's Clairiere has won consecutive Grade Is to climb to the top of the older dirt filly division. [...]

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Though Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas rarely passes on big stakes opportunities, he is skipping the GII Shuvee S. Sunday with Secret Oath (Arrogate). After she turned in an uncharacteristic dull performance in the June 10 GI Ogden Phipps S., Lukas and the 4-year-old filly's breeder-owners Robert and Stacy [...]

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – There will be no easing back into competition for champion Nest (Curlin). Certainly not on a Sunday in July at Saratoga Race Course. In the first start of her 4-year-old season–which was delayed by illness–in the GII Shuvee S., Nest is likely to face Clairiere (Curlin), the leader of the older [...]