D. Wayne Lukas

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--In early June, while I was working on a story about the GI Met Mile for the TDN, one question led me to another. First: What year did two-time Met Mile winner Gulch go into the Hall of Fame? Second: How could Gulch, who won seven Grade I races, finished in the top three in 25 of 32 career starts and earned over $3 million in the 1980s not be in the Hall of Fame? "Yeah. You've got it. You're right," breeder-owner Peter Brant said. "They don't always...

MyRacehorse representatives arrived at the 2022 renewal of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale ready for anything but expecting nothing. With the sale's two-day average closing out at $468,217 for 143 select yearlings sold, not to mention the healthy median of $375,000, it was clear that all the stars would have to align perfectly for the team to walk away with any one of the yearlings on their shortlist. Whether it could be chalked up to diligence, fate or even chance, team members haltered a pair of yearlings, a colt by...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.-A healthy field of 12 was entered Sunday for the 97th running of the $1-million GI Whitney Stakes, which will be run at Saratoga Race Course Saturday. National Treasure (Quality Road), from Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, will be the favorite as he is ranked as the top older horse in the country in the weekly NTRA poll. Evidently, he is not scaring anyone off. Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher has a trio of horses entered in Bright Future (Curlin), Charge It (Tapit) and Crupi (Curlin)....

Saratoga Springs, N.Y. -- It is no surprise that Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas is confident that his GI Preakness Stakes winner Seize the Grey (Arrogate) is up to the challenge he will face Saturday at Saratoga Race Course in the GII Jim Dandy Stakes. Never shy about touting his horses, Lukas, 88, said that the MyRacehorse colt is ready to take on beaten GI Kentucky Derby favorite Fierceness (City of Light) and beaten GI Belmont Stakes favorite Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) in the local prep for the...

MyRacehorse's Seize the Grey (Arrogate) recorded his final major work Tuesday ahead of an intended date in the GII Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga this weekend. Over Oklahoma's training track rated 'wet-fast,' the grey covered a half mile in :47.99. The GI Preakness Stakes winner shipped to Churchill Downs following a seventh-place finish in the GI Belmont Stakes June 8 before returning to the Spa earlier this month. "He was very strong and I'm very pleased with him," said Lukas. "I told the rider to go :47 and a fifth,...

MyRacehorse has launched "Retail With a Purpose," consisting of a series of auctions featuring experiences and memorabilia that owners can bid on with 100% of proceeds directed to the MyRacehorse Transition Fund. Auctions are facilitated through the "Retail With a Purpose" program within the MRH shop, with new items launching regularly. Auction items include signed memorabilia, trophies, private morning training experiences, equipment worn by MRH horses such as shoes and halters, box seats at racetracks and stallion tours. In addition to the Retail With a Purpose program, MRH will continue...

Over the course of the past week, D. Wayne Lukas had indicated that it was very likely that GI Preakness winner Seize the Grey (Arrogate) would stay put and run in the GII Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga July 27 rather than ship to the Jersey Shore for Monmouth's GI Haskell Stakes one week earlier. Gainesway Farm announced that it had secured the breeding rights in the Classic winner last week. "Since the breeding rights have gotten involved with this horse, there's so much more involvement in far as the...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--Last summer, we hardly knew Kentucky-based trainer Al Stall Jr. During the 40 days of the 2023 Saratoga meet, Stall came up with one win in 12 starts. It's a little different a year later. Four days into the Spa season and Stall has started three horses. He has won with two of them and finished second with the third. "This pays the bar tab and the food tab," Stall said inside his office at his barn on the Saratoga backstretch Sunday morning. "We have to start working...

This season's GI Preakness Stakes winner Seize the Grey (Arrogate--Smart Shopping, by Smart Strike) will stand at Gainesway near Lexington after he retires, said officials at Gainesway, who acquired his stallion rights, in a release Wednesday afternoon. "We are excited to add Seize the Grey to our stallion roster, " said Gainesway's general manager Brian Graves. "Arrogate was cut out to be a top sire and we are excited to have one his best sons stand at Gainesway. His speed and good looks should prove to be very popular with...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.-With the mighty successful prelim--the GI Belmont Stakes--now part of Saratoga's storied history, it is time to move on to the main event. The 40-day racing season, the 156th since the first meet was staged in 1863, commences Thursday with an 11-race program at Saratoga Race Course, America's oldest sporting venue. The listed six-furlong $175,000 Schuylerville S., a graded stakes for 2-year-old fillies through last year, is the traditional opening-day feature. The first post is at 1:10 p.m. By the time the meet concludes on Labor Day, Sept....

GI Arkansas Derby runner up Just Steel (Justify) continues to do well since having surgery to repair a condylar fracture of his right front fetlock May 22. In a video update provided by Light Up Racing and Martha Jane at Mulholland Springs, the 3-year-old is said to progressing well through rehab. Detailing his next steps, she says that: "It's been about 35 days since his surgery so we've started hand-walking him. Dr. Bramlage would like to have him hand-walked for another month. If everything still goes well, we will take...

8th-CD, 120K, Msw, f, 2yo, 6f, 4:23 p.m. The top-priced filly from GI Kentucky Derby winner Authentic's first crop, TRADING SECRETS brought $800,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale last year for BC Stables LLC. Running for D. Wayne Lukas, the filly is a half to GII Woodward Stakes runner up Film Star (Flatter) and out of a half-sister to both MGSW Kid Cruz (Lemon Drop Kid) and MGSW/GISP Three Witches (Into Mischief) along with GSW Spellbound (Bernardini) and her daughter, MGSW Soothsay (Distorted Humor). This is also the family of...