Saratoga Race Course

A full slate of entertainment and family-friendly events are set for the July 4th Racing Festival, which will be held Friday, July 3 through Sunday, July 5, and serve as Opening Weekend of the summer meet at Saratoga Race Course, the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) announced Thursday. Saratoga's Opening Weekend festivities will align with the nationwide celebration commemorating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. "Opening Weekend at Saratoga Race Course is one of the most anticipated events of the summer in New York, and...

Officials at the New York Racing Association (NYRA) have announced a charitable campaign in support of the trainers, staff and backstretch workers impacted by the early Tuesday barn fire at the Saratoga Casino Hotel Harness Track. The initiative will first include a $50,000 contribution from NYRA to the Saratoga Harness Horseperson's Association (SHHA) to assist those affected by the fire. Additionally, NYRA will host a fundraiser on opening day of the meet at Saratoga Race Course July 3 where fans will have the opportunity to purchase a specially designed T-shirt....

The first condition book for Saratoga Race Course's summer meet is now available online. The book spans racing from opening day, July 3, through July 26. The 46-day summer meet, totaling a nearly 14% overall increase in overnight purses, features open maiden special weight races upped by 15%, from $100,000 to $115,000. First-level allowance events will be contested with purses of $120,000 and second-level allowance races will be offered for $125,000. Stakes purses for the meet increased this year to a total of $23.575 million over 73 stakes races. The...

Some 3 1/2 years ago, when the New York Racing Association (NYRA) first announced that the GI Belmont Stakes would be relocated to Saratoga Race Course during the extensive renovation of Belmont Park, there was plenty of hand-wringing about whether or not the three-year move to a different track and a cutback in distance from 12 to 10 furlongs constituted over-tinkering with the third jewel of the Triple Crown. "The debate is healthy. It means fans care," I wrote in a Dec. 10, 2023 installment of this column. "But the...

Flying Dutchmen's Slay the Day romped home a front-running victress of the GIII Soaring Softly Stakes at Saratoga Sunday. The 3-5 favorite, away alertly, battled through an opening quarter of :21.33 and was clear as the half went up in :44.05. Cadenza attempted to launch a challenge in upper stretch, but Slay the Day kept finding more and bound home an easy winner. "She's been in good form and trained well going into it," said winning trainer Brian Lynch. "She ran awesome, no doubt about it, but we'd have been...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - At 7:30 Sunday morning, Cherie DeVaux stood in front of a couple dozen media types and talked all things Golden Tempo (Curlin). There was plenty to say. Moments before, she had brought the big horse out of his stall and Golden Tempo stood in the shedrow, gawked at the horse racing paparazzi and hammed it up. While DeVaux held him with a shank, Golden Tempo stuck his long neck past his trainer and took a bite out of the blanket of white carnations that was draped...

Book'em Danno (Bucchero), the best horse the New Jersey breeding program has produced in decades, will return to the Garden State and make his next start in the July 17 Mr. Prospector Stakes at Monmouth Park. The race will be run the day before the GI Haskell Stakes and the purse will be increased from $100,000 to $200,000. It will be Book'em Danno's first start in New Jersey since he won the July 19, 2024 Jersey Shore Stakes at Monmouth, "This has been in the works for a long time,"...

There might be a touch of malaise come Sunday, but the GIII Matt Winn Stakes at Churchill Downs for 3-year-olds is the way to revive any Belmont Stakes reveler with the proper racing tonic. Add in a pair of competitive graded grass races at the Spa for good measure and Sunday's higher level slate should make things right as rain. In the Matt Winn, a trio of GI Kentucky Derby entrants will get another crack at the surface that was less than kind to them on the first Saturday in...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Michael McCarthy would like nothing more than to have the wildly popular Journalism (Curlin) return to Saratoga Race Course this summer. "It would be awfully nice if he could," McCarthy said just outside Journalism's stall at the Oklahoma Training Track Thursday morning. "Saratoga, as I keep on saying, is a magical place for horses and people alike. We would be more than happy to bring him back here if the opportunity presented itself." First things first. Journalism, owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Bridlewood Farm, Don...

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) has updated protocols to further enhance fan safety and security while supporting the longstanding cooler policy tradition at historic Saratoga Race Course, the track said via a press release on Friday. Fans bringing coolers to Saratoga Race Course will be required to ensure all ice is contained inside sealed bags upon arrival at the admission gates. The policy will take effect with the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, June 3-7, and will continue during the Saratoga summer meet, July 3-Sept. 7. The initiative is...

For 60 days straight over the winter at Will Walden's Palm Meadows base in Florida, MGISW Rhetorical (Not This Time) underwent a different kind of training. Instead of being turned out for the off-season like so many horses, his trainer decided that it was time to unveil a new project where skills like dressage would be emphasized. The work that the gelding put in over those months has paid off and now the New York-bred Horse of the Year owned by Gary Barber, Cheyenne Stable and Wachtel Stable will point...

The trio of 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard', Emerging Market (Candy Ride {Arg}), Ottinho (Quality Road)and Growth Equity (Nyquist) trained by five-time Eclipse Award-winner Chad Brown and the 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard', Chief Wallabee (Constitution) for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott worked Saturday across Saratoga Race Course and Belmont Park in preparation for the GI Belmont Stakes at the Spa June 6, the NYRA press office said in a Saturday release. The pair of Ottinho and Growth Equity worked in company over the Belmont Park dirt...