Saratoga Race Course

If you like to sift through numbers, a few stand out from Saturday's GI Runhappy Travers S. card at Saratoga Race Course. How about six Grade I stakes, whose winners all earned triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures? They weren't big-figure blowouts either. Five of those ultra-competitive races were decided by a half-length or less at the wire. Nine winning favorites from 13 races also catches the eye. As does the four-win performance by jockey Joel Rosario. But the most mind-boggling numeric notation from the summer's biggest day of racing appeared in...

Trainer Chad Brown will saddle half of the six-horse field in the GII Ballston Spa S. at Saratoga Saturday. Brown's trio is led by GI Matriarch S. winner Viadera (GB) (Bated Breath {GB}). The 5-year-old mare opened her stateside campaign with a fourth-place effort in last year's GIII Intercontinental S. before culminating a three-race win streak in the Matriarch last November. In her lone start this year, she was a troubled fourth in the Aug. 8 De La Rose S. "She had a lot of trouble last time, but she...

Michael Lund Petersen's Gamine (Into Mischief), last year's Eclipse champion female sprinter, aims for her fifth straight victory in the GI Ketel One Ballerina S.--a Win and You're In event for the GI Breeders' Cup F/M Sprint--at Saratoga Saturday. Gamine capped her championship campaign with a 6 1/4-length romp in last year's F/M Sprint and she has been largely unchallenged in three starts so far this term. The bay filly opened 2021 with a five-length score in the Apr. 4 GIII Las Flores S. and added the May 1 GI...

J Kirk and Judy Robison's Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) puts his perfect three-for-three Saratoga record on the line when he faces five rivals in the GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S. at Saratoga Saturday. The bay colt won last year's GII Saratoga Special S. and GI Hopeful S. and returned to the upstate oval to annex the Aug. 1 GII Amsterdam S. last time out. "He's done really well," trainer Steve Asmussen said of Jackie's Warrior. "All three of his races at Saratoga were obviously very good. We're anxious to...

Red Oak Stable and Madaket Stables' Mind Control (Stay Thirsty) will attempt to win his third Grade I victory at Saratoga when he goes postward in the GI Forego S. Saturday. The 5-year-old pulled the 10-1 upset when going wire-to-wire in the 2018 GI Hopeful S. and returned to win the 2019 GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S., again at double-digit odds. His Spa streak was interrupted last year when he was third in the GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. and eighth in the Forego, but he returned to the...

Essential Quality (Tapit) drew post two of seven and was installed the 4-5 morning-line favorite when post positions were drawn Wednesday morning for Saturday's GI Runhappy Travers S. Last year's champion 2-year-old colt rebounded from his lone loss to date, a fourth in the GI Kentucky Derby, to win the June 5 GI Belmont S. and July 31 GII Jim Dandy S. Trainer Brad Cox said the Godolphin homebred has only improved since the Jim Dandy. "He's sharp, mentally," Cox said. "He's sharper this race than going into the Jim...

Winchell Thoroughbreds' Midnight Bourbon (Tiznow), who most recently clipped heels and nearly fell to the track in the stretch run of the July 17 GI Betfair.com Haskell S. at Monmouth Park, tuned up for an expected start in next Saturday's GI Runhappy Travers S. with a four-furlong work in :49.77 (17/68) over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga Sunday. "He's a very impressive horse," trainer Steve Asmussen said. "I think we're obviously very fortunate that he came out of the mishap in the Haskell in good shape and he's training...

MyRacehorse and Spendthrift Farm's Got Stormy (Get Stormy), the only female winner of the GI Fourstardave H. when she won the race two years ago in stakes record time, found her best form Saturday to post a 12-1 upset in this year's running of the "Win and You're In" qualifier for the GI Breeders' Cup Mile. Purchased off a fifth-place finish in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint by B. Wayne Hughes's Spendthrift Farm for $2.75 million at last year's Fasig-Tipton November Sale and then offered in microshare pieces via...

High Oak was let go at double-digit odds off a narrow victory downstate June 26 that earned just a 57 Beyer Speed Figure, but he took a serious step forward Saturday to become freshman sire Gormley (Malibu Moon)'s first black-type winner. Having signaled his readiness with a :48.11 bullet breeze last week on the Oklahoma Training Track in company with his older Grade I-winning stablemate Casa Creed (Jimmy Creed), who would finish third in the GI Fourstardave H. one race later, the bay stalked out wide behind splits of :21.82...

Michael Dubb and Michael Caruso's Doctor Jeff (Street Boss), a first-out winner in a six-furlong off-turf maiden special weight at Belmont Park July 10, will step right up to graded company as the 2-1 morning-line favorite in Saturday's GII Saratoga Special S. The chestnut colt earned a Special field-high 78 Beyer Speed Figure for his 2 1/4-length debut win and he has recorded three breezes over the main track at Saratoga, including a bullet five-furlong work in :59.61 Sunday, for trainer Rudy Rodriguez. "I'm just very happy with the way...

Though divided by a continent, the Grade I sprints on either coast Saturday have an evocative bond that opens a far less navigable gulf between the golden era they preserve, and our own drab times. For each honors an icon of American glamor in the last century--and if a day at Saratoga or Del Mar retains a certain magic, in 2021, then that's partly because we can almost still sense the smiling, shimmering presence of Alfred G. Vanderbilt and Bing Crosby, respectively. The prestige and panache contributed by these gentlemen...

Jockeys across the country will join in a show of support for the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund Saturday. At some 25 racetracks, riders will wear armbands and participate in fund-raising activities raise funds for the PDJF and raise awareness of National Disability Independence Day, which marks the 31st anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The PDJF is a 501(c)(3) public charity that provides financial assistance to approximately 60 former jockeys who have suffered catastrophic on-track injuries. Racetracks, along with their jockey colonies, participating in the...