Saratoga Race Course

Saratoga works for many reasons. The combination of great racing, a historic venue, iconic races like the GI Whitney S. and the GI Travers are reasons why more than one million fans file through the turnstiles every meet and the handle for the season now tops $800 million. But Saratoga's success also has a lot to do with its exclusivity. It's only open for eight weeks and there are just 40 racing days. That, as much as anything else, is what makes it special. There's an opening day and there...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Without hesitation Sunday morning, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas said he knows what he will be doing Monday, his 89th birthday. "Training horses," he said. "I got two in, and I'll see if I can make it a special day by trying to get those things at least closer or win one. I told Laurie, my wife, 'for a birthday present, I'd like see one of them jump up and win.'" A victory on closing day of the Saratoga Race Course season would enable...

Godolphin's Highland Falls (Curlin) outdueled favored Arthur's Ride (Tapit) and strode home an easy winner of the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Sunday at Saratoga. The 4-year-old earned his first top-level victory, as well as an automatic berth in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, and gave jockey Flavien Prat his record-setting 13 graded win of the meeting. Arthur's Ride, coming off a win in the GI Whitney Stakes, rushed up and over from his outside post and had a clear advantage heading into the first turn through an opening quarter...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - There could be another weekend of racing at Saratoga Race Course in 2025, if a plan being considered by the New York Racing Association is adopted. Although the racing would take place at the historic upstate facility, NYRA officials said it technically would not be an expansion of the 40-day Saratoga season. If the proposal is approved, the Fourth of July weekend--July 4 falls on a Friday--at Saratoga would be the final days of the Belmont of Aqueduct meet. The Saratoga season would begin on Thursday,...

The holiday weekend of stakes action--and the Saratoga meet--conclude in style when morning-line favorite Ferocious (Flatter) faces eight rivals in contentious renewal of the GI Hopeful Stakes. Campaigned by JR Ranch, Ramiro Restrepo, High Step Racing and OGMA Investments, the $1.3-million OBS March graduate romped to a 7 3/4-length debut win and earned a 'TDN Rising Star' label Aug. 3. Off a step slow in that unveiling, Ferocious settled in a good stalking position behind an opening quarter-mile in :22.06 over a muddy and sealed main track. Tipped out to...

You know how the quote reads directly from the handicapper's Bible, "Behold the pale horse with controlling speed." Heeding that warning arrives once again on Sunday. Halfway through the three-day holiday weekend of Thoroughbred racing, Saratoga and Del Mar card graded races. The Spa's GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes, the penultimate 'Win and You're In' pass to the Breeders' Cup Classic, sets the tone with a myriad of intriguing storylines woven into this fleece as a half dozen entries will try to catch that aforementioned 'pale horse' Arthur's Ride...

7th-SAR, $100K, Msw, 2yo, f, 7f, 3:25 p.m. ET. ALL THE FEELS (Into Mischief) was produced in-house at Spendthrift Farm and will make her first start for trainer Todd Pletcher. GSW Positive Spirit (Pioneerof the Nile) joined the farm's broodmare band after she was acquired for $1.5 million at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Fall Mixed Sale and has handed All the Feels a pair of full-siblings. The Spa debut runner's GSW/GISP second dam is also responsible for GI Kentucky Derby hero Always Dreaming (Bodemeister) and GI Spinaway Stakes heroine Hot Dixie...

1st-SAR, $100K, Msw, 2yo, 5 1/2fT, 12:35 p.m. ET. BC Stables went to $850,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale to acquire CODE OF JUSTICE (Into Mischief). Sent to Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, the colt is the first foal for GSP Meal Ticket (Malibu Moon), who was picked up in a private sale by John Mulholland's Mulholland Springs. Now a 10-year-old, the dam is responsible for Code of Justice's younger full-sister Peanutbutternjelly and she foaled a colt by Gun Runner Apr. 14. Herself a half-sister to MSW...

Saratoga Springs, N.Y.--While it wasn't the scenario he expected at the beginning of the month, trainer John Ortiz will be busy late Saturday afternoon saddling the fillies Brightwork (Outwork) and 'TDN Rising Star' Quietside (Malibu Moon) in consecutive stakes at Saratoga Race Course. First up will be WSS Racing's Brightwork in the GIII $200,000 Prioress Stakes, scheduled for 5:04 p.m. ET. Immediately after the six-furlong Prioress, Ortiz will scoot back to the paddock to prepare Shortleaf Stable's Quietside in the $300,000 GI Spinaway Stakes, which Brightwork won last year. When...

Mentee (City of Light), the two-year-old full-brother to GI Travers Stakes winner Fierceness (City of Light), came down with laminitis after his winning debut on June 15 at Aqueduct. According to owner Mike Repole, who revealed the news on the TDN Writers' Room Podcast presented by Keeneland, the situation was so severe that the colt is "lucky to be alive." However, Mentee recovered so well and so quickly that he is set to start in Monday's GI Hopeful S. at Saratoga. Mentee broke his maiden by a nose, defeating another...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.-Just the mere fact that a $3,500 yearling has won two races of any kind at Saratoga this summer, puts The Queens M G (Thousand Words) in a "that's impressive" category. In the GI Spinaway Stakes Saturday, she will try to add to her reputation by completing the rare sweep of the track's three stakes for 2-year-old fillies. The Queens M G scored in the 5 1/2-furlong Schuylerville Stakes, long the opening day feature, by 2 3/4 lengths at 44-1 July 11. She crushed the six-furlong GIII Adirondack...

The National Hockey League's Stanley Cup--one of the most celebrated trophies in sports--will travel to Saratoga Race Course Aug. 31. Fans of hockey and horse racing will have an opportunity to take photos with the Stanley Cup at no charge when it is on display from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Jockey Silks Porch. Awarded annually to the National Hockey League's championship team, the Stanley Cup currently resides with the Florida Panthers, whose principal owner is Vinnie Viola of St. Elias Stable. "We are grateful to Vinnie Viola...