Saratoga

Reeves Thoroughbred Racing is enjoying a tremendous summer at Saratoga as they sit near the top of the leading owners list midway through the notoriously competitive race meet. So far, they've celebrated in the winner's circle alongside three stakes winners and an impressive debut-winning juvenile. Dean Reeves, a native of Atlanta and the co-owner of a commercial contracting company in Georgia, formed Reeves Thoroughbred Racing with his wife Patti in 2009. The couple has campaigned a long line of Grade I performers since. Reeves was on the Oklahoma backstretch with...

Poppy Flower took three tries to break her maiden at Belmont last Spring before making the jump into stakes company, posting on-the-board efforts in Saratoga's Bolton Landing S. behind future GISW Chi Town Lady (Verrazano) and the Ainsworth S. in the fall before ending her year with a fifth in the GIII Futurity S. for Wesley Ward. After a seven-month layoff, Poppy Flower returned for new trainer Bill Mott to capture the Stormy Blues S. at Laurel June 19 and check in just a half-length short behind Empress Tigress in...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY -- Peter Brant's Regal Glory (Animal Kingdom) arrives at GI Fourstardave H. Saturday with no shortage of angles to her story. The two-time Grade I winner is unbeaten in three starts this year and is likely to go off as the favorite in the field of five signed up for the one-mile turf event. This will be her first try against males in a distinguished career with trainer Chad Brown that has produced 12 victories from 19 starts and earnings of $2,111,009. Regal Glory has been with...

Some of the most highly anticipated races during the summer racing season are the 'baby' races during the boutique meetings at both Saratoga and Del Mar and at Ellis Park, which attracts its fair share of high-priced offspring from a variety of top national outfits. Summer Breezes highlights debuting 2-year-olds at those meetings that have been sourced at the breeze-up sales earlier in the year, with links to their under-tack previews. Already this year at Saratoga, City Man (Mucho Macho Man), Mo Strike (Uncle Mo) and Empress Tigress (Classic Empire)--each...

Flavien Prat is a world-class jockey, a future Hall of Famer who dominated the Southern California circuit before heading east. Yet, he entered the week tied for fourth-place in the Saratoga jockey standings, 15 wins behind the leader, Irad Ortiz, Jr. Tyler Gaffalione is the top jockey in Kentucky and is coming off a meet at Churchill Downs where he was leading rider and had 29 more wins than the runner-up. He began the week in ninth-place in the Saratoga standings. That's no reflection on Prat or Gaffalione. What it...

By this stage, they've probably had enough of being asked about that $1 mare. But the remarkable thing is that the first Thoroughbred ever acquired by Robert and Stacy Mitchell still cost more (cover fees aside) than all the others that have stocked Briland Farm, on and off the racetrack, since 2001. That was the year, having begun an inadvertent breeding career with a mare discarded by a friend of a friend, they decided to see what they could do with one that cost as much as $36,000. Her name...

6th-Saratoga, $88,000, (S), Msw, 8-10, 2yo, f, 6f, 1:11.48, ft, 5 lengths. MAPLE LEAF MEL (f, 2, Cross Traffic--City Gift, by City Place), named after trainer Jeremiah Englehart's assistant trainer Melanie Giddings, entered this unveiling with a reputation that preceded her, and garnered 3-5 favoritism in this state-bred affair. Quick to the front from mid-pack, the $150,000 EASMAY purchase (:10.2) set the tempo against the fence and expanded her gap at each point of call as Spinning Colors (Hard Spun) chased in vain. In much of a one-horse race from...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas thought Naughty Gal (Into Mischief) was so good in the GIII Adirondack S. Sunday that her next start ought to be in the GI Spinaway S. Summer Promise (Uncle Mo), runner-up in the GIII Schuylerville S. on opening day was being pointed to the $300,000 seven-furlong Spinaway Sept. 4, but Lukas said Wednesday that he was reconsidering that approach. "I've kind of changed gears after I watched Naughty Gal run the other day and win," he said. "I might...

by Jessica Martini & Christie DeBernardis SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearlings Sale opened with a lively session of trade punctuated by four seven-figure yearlings Monday evening in upstate New York. A colt by Uncle Mo, consigned by Lane's End as agent for his breeder, Summer Wind Farm, attracted the session's highest bid when selling for $1.5 million to the partnership of West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford Racing. In all, 69 yearlings sold at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion Monday for a total of $28,930,000. The average...

e Five Racing Thoroughbreds' Pink Hue (f, 2, Mendelssohn--Involved, by Speightstown) was a bit short of running room when push was about to come to shove in Sunday's sixth race going two turns over the Saratoga turf course, but once the daylight came, the $310,000 Keeneland September graduate went through her gears and ran up the score to defeat the well-meant Xigera (Nyquist) by 2 3/4 resounding lengths. Guided down onto the fence after brushing with a rival at the break, Pink Hue got a foothold at the fence from...

5th-Saratoga, $105,000, Msw, 8-7, 2yo, f, 7f, 1:25.36, ft, neck. RAGING SEA (f, 2, Curlin--Stormy Welcome, by Storm Cat), allowed to drift from a 5-1 morning line to jump at a dime short of 7-1, locked horns with favored Peace Cruiser (Violence) entering the final furlong of a seven-furlong maiden and fought on to prevail by a neck at first asking Sunday afternoon. The field was away in good order and the well-bred chestnut raced between rivals in the second flight of horses as Tribal Queen (Bolt d'Oro) cut out...

1st-Saratoga, $105,000, Msw, 8-7, 2yo, 5 1/2fT, 1:02.50, fm, 2 lengths. GILCREASE (c, 2, More Than Ready--Indian Brava {SP}, by Bernardini) was let go at longshot odds, owing in large part to an overbet favorite in the form of 3-4 Talkin Pharoah (American Pharoah), and got the Sunday program at Saratoga off to a $54 upset for a barn that can strike with this kind. Showing good speed for this career debut, the dark bay chased from third as Talkin Pharoah argued the pace inside of his stable companion, the...