Saffie Joseph Jr.

6th-GP, $70K, Msw, 2yo, f, 6f, 3:30 p.m. ET. A $630,000 buy at the 2024 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling sale, LITTLE GEORGIE (Charlatan) makes her first start for trainer Saffie Joseph. Sporting the same distinctive chestnut color as her sire, the filly is out of MSW Swingit (Victory Gallop), the dam of 10 foals, eight to race and seven winners. Chief among her produce are MGISP Neolithic (Harlan's Holiday) and MGSW Travel Column (Frosted). The latter--initially an $850,000 yearling purchase by OXO Equine--went to Spendthirft Farm for $2-million at the...

The 2023 GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner White Abarrio (Race Day) breezed a half-mile in company Thursday at Gulfstream Park in preparation for a planned start in the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile Nov. 1 at Del Mar. Breezing outside of stablemate Practically Dark (Practical Joke), they covered four furlongs on a fast track :45.86, the fastest clocking of seven recorded at the distance. "Today was 24 days out, almost three weeks, so we wanted a strong work," said trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. "He put in a strong work. He...

Despite having already proven herself to be the model of consistency, R Disaster came into Saturday's GII Gallant Bloom Stakes still in search of her initial win at the graded level. However, the 4-year-old daughter of Awesome Slew was able to check that off her list with a confident score in the 6 1/2-furlong test at the Big A. Senza Parole (Gun Runner) got the jump at the start, however, the even-money choice also benefitted from a clean break and soon found herself at the head of affairs. Racing through...

Winner of the GIII Vagrancy Stakes at the Belmont at Aqueduct meet in May, Haulin Ice (f, 4, Coal Front--She's Smoke, by Half Ours) secured her trip to the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint with victory in Saturday's GIII Princess Rooney Stakes at Gulfstream Park, a 'Win and You're In' race for the championship in November. The gray speedball hustled straight to the front in Hallandale, setting uncontested fractions of :23.01 and :45.50 with her ears flicking back and forth. She didn't stop, shifting into another gear at...

2023 GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner White Abarrio (Race Day) will target the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. confirmed Thursday. The now 6-year-old, who started the year with a win in the GI Pegasus World Cup, has returned to Gulfstream Park from Saratoga, where he is scheduled to breeze next week for the first time since finishing fourth in the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Aug. 31. "Obviously, things didn't go the way we wanted in the Jockey Club. We're going to regroup in the Mile,"...

In this continuing series, TDN's Senior Racing Editor Steve Sherack catches up with the connections of promising maidens to keep on your radar. Given "a new lease on life" after undergoing kidney transplant surgery last June, Ken Ramsey was looking for a way to say thank you to Dr. Sandip Kapur. "This is the premier doctor in New York and he's got all kinds of accolades, but he's never had a horse named after him," the longtime owner/breeder said of Dr. Kapur, Chief of Transplant Surgery and Director of the...

10th-Gulfstream, $42,000, Msw, 8-31, 2yo, f, 1m 70y (AWT) (off turf), 1:43.63, ft, 1/2 length. DANDONA (f, 2, Tiz the Law--Tulsa Queen {SW & GSP-Can, SW-USA, $211,381}, by Cactus Ridge) was a pricey in-training purchase this past spring and she started her career on the tapeta after this maiden was rained off the turf course. Given 2-5 favoritism on the back of two bullets from her last three works, the filly was content to watch the race unfold from the back of the pack as pacesetters rolled through :23.59 and...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--After the last two starts, there may be those who gave up on White Abarrio (Race Day). Saffie Joseph Jr., the trainer of the 6-year-old gray horse, isn't one of them. White Abarrio reappears at Saratoga on Sunday in the $1 million GI Jockey Club Gold Cup, a 1 1/4-mile test that has attracted some of the best older horses in the country. GI Whitney Stakes winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Sierra Leone is here, so is fellow 'Rising Star' Mindframe (Constitution), winner of all three of his...

7th-SAR, $100k, Msw, 2yo, f, 6f, 2:55p.m. ET Heading out from the barn of Cherie DeVaux, PAIGE TURNER (Army Mule) debuts here against a full field of maidens in this main track baby dash. A $350,000 OBSMAR pick up this year, the filly is a half-sister to GISW Speed Boat Beach (Bayern). To the outside is Celebrity Quest (Nyquist), a $525,000 KEESEP graduate who is out of a half-sister to GISW Power Broker (Pulpit). Another of the dam's half-siblings is the mother of MGISW Seize the Grey (Arrogate). This is...

Just how deep is Sunday's running of the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga, a 'Win and You're In' qualifier for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic in a little more than two months' time? Well, six of the eight remaining horses--GII Charles Town Classic winner Banishing (Ghostzapper) will be scratched--have recorded at least one Beyer Speed Figure of 104 or higher this year and three of the entrants are already Grade I winners this term. It is the very definition of a hot race. The field is led by...

Indy Bay kept the momentum rolling Friday night for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., giving him his second stakes win on the card with a pace-stalking win in the GII Charles Town Oaks. The daughter of Take Charge Indy kicked off her career with a pair of Oaklawn starts for trainer Thomas Vance before selling privately and shipping south to join Saffie Joseph's Gulfstream string in early spring. A winner in her first Florida try stepping up to seven furlongs March 1, she made the return trip to Arkansas and added...

Two years ago, Daniel Alonso's Skippylongstocking (Exaggerator) ran off to an impressive victory in the GII Charles Town Classic and returned last term to replicate the feat, winning by 5 3/4 lengths as the even-money choice. At Charles Town Friday, the 6-year-old will try for the three-peat when he lines up against seven others in the nine-furlong test. This season, the grey finished third in the GI Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream in January before taking Tampa's Challenger Stakes Mar. 8. Third in the GII Oaklawn Handicap in April, the...