Belmont Stakes
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- It turned out that a non-decision is precisely what settled who would ride GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) and GI Belmont S. winner Arcangelo (Arrogate) in the GI Travers. Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano rode both horses to their victories in the Triple Crown series and had his choice of which one to ride in the Travers on Aug. 26 at Saratoga Race Course. He holds the Travers record of six wins. Mage's trainer, Gustavo Delgado, asked Castellano on Monday to give him...
Blue Rose Farm's Arcangelo (Arrogate), most recently winner of the GI Belmont S., tuned up for the Aug. 26 GI Travers S. with a five-furlong work in 1:01.23 (2/10) over the main track at Saratoga Wednesday. Trained by Jena Antonucci and piloted through the work by Javier Castellano, Arcangelo was caught by NYRA Clockers through splits of :24 1/5 and :36 2/5 before galloping out in 1:14 2/5 and 1:27 flat. "He was great. It was a beautiful work. Javier was very pleased," Antonucci said. Wednesday's work was Arcangelo's third...
Multiple graded stakes winner Tax (Arch) has been retired from racing. The 7-year-old gelding, who was claimed by trainer and co-owner Danny Gargan for $50,000 out of his debut race in 2018, won the 2019 GII Jim Dandy S. and GIII Withers S., as well as the 2020 GIII Harlan's Holiday S. He earned a trip to the 2019 GI Kentucky Derby with a runner-up effort in the GII Wood Memorial. Fourteenth in the Derby, he returned to finish fourth in the GI Belmont S. On the board in 11...
In a tweet sent out Tuesday afternoon, Gulfstream Park announced that Hall of Fame jockey Edgar Prado has retired. With 7,119 victories, Prado, 56, is the eighth winningest jockey in the sport's history. He has not ridden since the Jan. 6 card at Gulfstream. At deadline for this story, Prado had not returned a phone from the TDN, but told the Blood-Horse that he wanted to spend more time with his family. "It was getting harder and harder and I was wasting the time that I spent with my family,...
Just a few days after the running of this year's GI Belmont S., the final leg of the Triple Crown was back in the news. With the Belmont grandstand set to be torn down after the 2024 spring meet and with the new stands not expected to be ready until 2026, the 2025 Belmont S. will likely need a home. And after hinting that the race could be run in Saratoga, the New York Racing Association was more specific when the topic was addressed early last week. When asked by...
Arrests have been made and one fugitive is still at large in the recent cracking of an alleged theft network that targeted sporting museums between 1999 and 2019. Included in the crime spree was the 2013 smash-and-grab heist of five trophies worth an estimated $400,000 from the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York. According to the felony indictment, there appears to be no hope for recovering the looted trophies, three of which were solid gold, and one of which was the 1903 Belmont...
With the construction of the new Belmont Park scheduled to begin after the spring 2024 meet, and plans for the 2025 event still uncertain, the New York Racing Association (NYRA) expressed their preference that a non-Belmont-Park Belmont Stakes be held at Saratoga rather than Aqueduct. "Should the construction of a new Belmont Park require the Belmont Stakes to be run at a different venue, then NYRA's preference would absolutely be to hold the event at Saratoga Racecourse," said NYRA's Director of Communications, Patrick McKenna, in a text to the TDN...
The team around Arcangelo (Arrogate) was still basking in the glory of his GI Belmont S. victory Sunday morning, even as trainer Jena Antonucci admitted no future plans had been mapped out for the gray colt who was taking a power nap nearby. "There is zero idea," Antonucci said of a potential next start for Arcangelo. "We know what the calendar is and what's where, so we'll let him come out of this and tell us. [The Aug. 26 GI Travers] is on our radar, but the stakes schedule is...
I didn't realize how badly I wanted Jena Antonucci to win the GI Belmont S. Saturday until Arcangelo slipped up the rail and drove past National Treasure under a perfect ride by Javier Castellano and I started screaming at the TV and feverishly clapping the horse onto the wire. It wasn't until Arcangelo crossed the wire first and Javier pumped his fist in the air that I started jumping up and down, tears streaming down my face, that I realized how much it mattered to me, a nearly 50-year-old woman...
ELMONT, NY - Breathe easy. Following significant improvement in air quality conditions throughout New York State, the 155th GI Belmont Stakes--celebrating the 50th anniversary of Secretariat's performance of a lifetime in the final leg of the Triple Crown--will go on as scheduled Saturday evening. If there's one sire's name that you want to see when handicapping the 1 1/2-mile Classic, it's Tapit. Responsible for a co-record four Belmont winners, two second-place finishers and two third-place finishers, the 22-year-old Gainesway kingpin will be represented by potential race favorite Tapit Trice (Tapit)...
Hit Show (Candy Ride {Arg}) can make some noise at what has to be a terrific price in Saturday's GI Belmont S. He continues to improve with each of his six career starts for trainer Brad Cox, and was a bit unlucky in his last two tries. The handsome gray came up just a nose short with a wide trip after bouncing off rivals down the stretch in the GII Wood Memorial S., then was a respectable fifth after racing too close to a scorching pace in the GI Kentucky...