Belmont Stakes

Sierra Leone (Gun Runner--Heavenly Love, by Malibu Moon), last year's champion 3-year-old colt, will join the roster at Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Kentucky next year, the operation announced Wednesday. Racing for Peter Brant, Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg, and Brook Smith and trained by Chad Brown, Sierra Leone is expected to make his final career start in the Nov. 1 GI Breeders' Cup Classic, a race he won in 2024. Sierra Leone, who topped the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale when selling for $2.3 million, was tabbed a 'TDN...

A filly from the first crop of GI Belmont Stakes winner Mo Donegal (hip 177) brought top price of $240,000 during the first session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's October Yearlings Sale Tuesday in Central Florida. The bay filly--one of three to bring $200,000 or more during the session--was bred by Peter E. Blum Thoroughbreds LLC and was consigned by Richard Kent's Kaizen Sales. Christophe Nouvellet, bidding on behalf of Dream With Me Florida, LLC, made the winning bid. "She was a standout in the back ring," Nouvellet said....

The new official logo of Belmont Park, which will open in September 2026 following a multi-year redevelopment project designed to create a world-class racing and entertainment destination on Long Island, was unveiled Wednesday by the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA). Inspired by one of the defining features of the property, the iconic Japanese White Pine, the new logo represents the evolution of Belmont Park while honoring the rich history of thoroughbred racing in New York. Centered around an updated version of the white pine, the Belmont Park logo incorporates...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It was a low-key celebration for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott Saturday night after Sovereignty (Into Mischief) continued his stampede through the 3-year-old male division. "Put a couple hamburgers on the grill," Mott said, sitting at his desk in his office at the Oklahoma Training Track on a soggy Sunday morning at Saratoga. "Good hamburgers, by the way. They were from Fresh Market. That was it. Then early to bed." When Mott got his barn Sunday morning, he looked down his shedrow and saw the...

Even though Nysos (Nyquist) was 1-10 on the board, Saturday's GII San Diego Handicap was a race he didn't have to win. He sprinted in his last two starts and had never been the distance of a mile-and-a-sixteenth. He also has a couple of large gaps in his form, suggesting that trainer Bob Baffert was having a hard time keeping him together. None of that mattered in the San Diego. Flavin Prat, who flew in from Saratoga for the ride, rode a patient race and saved ground into the second...

Despite the fact that Journalism (Curlin) became the first of his generation to earn as many as three elite-level victories with his thrilling success in the GI NYRABets Haskell Stakes last weekend, Godolphin's Sovereignty (Into Mischief) remains at the head of this year's sophomore class by virtue of convincing head-to-head tallies in the GI Kentucky Derby on May 3 and when last seen in the GI Belmont Stakes right here at Saratoga on June 7. But the argument can be made that Saturday's GII Jim Dandy Stakes at the Spa...

Scratched from the GI Woody Stephens S. on the blockbuster GI Belmont Stakes program at Saratoga June 7, 'TDN Rising Star' Colloquial (Vekoma) will be given 60 days off, per co-owner Jack Wolf of Starlight Racing. "He's at Fair Hill right now with Bruce Jackson," Wolf said. "Dr. Yarborough and (trainer) George (Weaver) didn't like the way that he was moving. Even though--we'd been pointing to that thing for some time--it was a tough call, it was the right call. He'll probably be back in 60 days or something like...

The 2026 running of the GI Belmont Stakes will be run at Saratoga Race Course for a third and final time, New York Governor Kathy Hochul and officials at the New York Racing Association (NYRA) said in a release Friday morning. "New York is home to world-class sports and entertainment and this final chapter of the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Race Course honors our rich racing heritage while paving the way for a bold, new future at Belmont Park," Governor Hochul said. "Bringing the race back to Saratoga next year...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - After a post-race visit for a beer and some hors d'oeuvres at the downtown Whitman Brewing Company, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott was home, conked out on the recliner. "I must have slept in the chair for an hour," Mott said. "I turned the TV on and, at the count of three, I was gone. I woke up at midnight and went to bed." And that is how Mott spent his night after his talented 3-year-old colt Sovereignty (Into Mischief) turned the 157th running of...

The 2025 Triple Crown season delivered something even more elusive than a sweep of the series by a single horse--a legitimately intriguing rivalry between two talented colts that could end up on par with the likes of Affirmed vs. Alydar or Sunday Silence vs. Easy Goer. The afterglow of the GI Belmont Stakes at Saratoga includes plenty of anticipation and speculation about when one-two finishers Sovereignty (Into Mischief) and Journalism (Curlin) might meet again. In the meantime, here are seven takeaways from Saturday's card at the Spa. 1) The Preakness...

Sovereignty (Into Mischief) is on top. He got there by winning two of the most important races on the calendar for 3-year-olds. With his wins in the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Belmont Stakes, he leads the way because this is a sport where they're always asking, "What have you done for me lately?" But that doesn't necessarily mean that he's the best 3-year-old to have run this year. The last time Sovereignty lost was in the Mar. 29 GI Curlin Florida Derby. He didn't have any excuses. He just...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY -- The party was just getting started in the cramped winner's circle at Saratoga Race Course. It almost seemed like half of the 46,243 that came out to Saratoga to watch the GI Belmont Stakes were in there. Well, let's not get carried away. But it was jammed, and everyone was singing the praises of Sovereignty (Into Mischief), the Most Valuable Player in the second annual Belmont Stakes Festival at Saratoga. Even those who were vanquished by Sovereignty had to give a congratulatory nod to the Godolphin-owned,...