Seize the Grey

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- If it was up to Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, Seize the Grey (Arrogate) would be running in the $1.25-million, GI Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on Aug. 24. On Sunday morning, all Lukas could do was shrug his shoulders when asked if the GI Preakness Stakes winner would be taking a place in the Travers starting gate. "I don't know," he said at his barn on the Oklahoma Training Track. "I am going to vote to run him in it." Lukas, though,...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Back at his office on the Oklahoma Training Track Wednesday morning, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott was trying to describe the four-furlong work he had just seen from his 3-year-old colt Batten Down (Tapit). "Wooosh," was one of the sounds he made. "Phhhffftt," was another. The cartoon melodies made by Mott were, supposedly, offered to show how impressive the grey/roan Batten Down looked to him. Batten Down was timed in :48 (2/13) in the move on the Oklahoma Training Track. It was his first work...

If the weather in Saratoga Springs of late is any indication of what's to come at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion Monday and Tuesday evenings, the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale is poised for a volcanic renewal. In 2023, a total of 154 yearlings sold for $75,055,000, averaging $487,370 with a median of 375,000. The gross jumped from $66,955,000 generated for 143 sold in 2022. "The vibe feels good here," confirmed Taylor Made's Frank Taylor. "Everybody you would want to see in the courtyard, you would have seen walk in. The horses...

MyRacehorse representatives arrived at the 2022 renewal of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale ready for anything but expecting nothing. With the sale's two-day average closing out at $468,217 for 143 select yearlings sold, not to mention the healthy median of $375,000, it was clear that all the stars would have to align perfectly for the team to walk away with any one of the yearlings on their shortlist. Whether it could be chalked up to diligence, fate or even chance, team members haltered a pair of yearlings, a colt by...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.-A healthy field of 12 was entered Sunday for the 97th running of the $1-million GI Whitney Stakes, which will be run at Saratoga Race Course Saturday. National Treasure (Quality Road), from Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, will be the favorite as he is ranked as the top older horse in the country in the weekly NTRA poll. Evidently, he is not scaring anyone off. Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher has a trio of horses entered in Bright Future (Curlin), Charge It (Tapit) and Crupi (Curlin)....

Trainer Chad Brown has long stated that a victory in the GI Travers S., not far from home in Mechanicville, would be one of the crowning moments of what will be a Hall of Fame career. 'TDN Rising Star' Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) is the barn's main hope for the centerpiece of the Saratoga meeting and he can take one giant step towards fulfilling his trainer's dream as the likely favorite in Saturday's GII Jim Dandy Stakes. The colt, who topped the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale not far from the...

MyRacehorse's Seize the Grey (Arrogate) recorded his final major work Tuesday ahead of an intended date in the GII Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga this weekend. Over Oklahoma's training track rated 'wet-fast,' the grey covered a half mile in :47.99. The GI Preakness Stakes winner shipped to Churchill Downs following a seventh-place finish in the GI Belmont Stakes June 8 before returning to the Spa earlier this month. "He was very strong and I'm very pleased with him," said Lukas. "I told the rider to go :47 and a fifth,...

MyRacehorse has launched "Retail With a Purpose," consisting of a series of auctions featuring experiences and memorabilia that owners can bid on with 100% of proceeds directed to the MyRacehorse Transition Fund. Auctions are facilitated through the "Retail With a Purpose" program within the MRH shop, with new items launching regularly. Auction items include signed memorabilia, trophies, private morning training experiences, equipment worn by MRH horses such as shoes and halters, box seats at racetracks and stallion tours. In addition to the Retail With a Purpose program, MRH will continue...

Over the course of the past week, D. Wayne Lukas had indicated that it was very likely that GI Preakness winner Seize the Grey (Arrogate) would stay put and run in the GII Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga July 27 rather than ship to the Jersey Shore for Monmouth's GI Haskell Stakes one week earlier. Gainesway Farm announced that it had secured the breeding rights in the Classic winner last week. "Since the breeding rights have gotten involved with this horse, there's so much more involvement in far as the...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--Last summer, we hardly knew Kentucky-based trainer Al Stall Jr. During the 40 days of the 2023 Saratoga meet, Stall came up with one win in 12 starts. It's a little different a year later. Four days into the Spa season and Stall has started three horses. He has won with two of them and finished second with the third. "This pays the bar tab and the food tab," Stall said inside his office at his barn on the Saratoga backstretch Sunday morning. "We have to start working...

This season's GI Preakness Stakes winner Seize the Grey (Arrogate--Smart Shopping, by Smart Strike) will stand at Gainesway near Lexington after he retires, said officials at Gainesway, who acquired his stallion rights, in a release Wednesday afternoon. "We are excited to add Seize the Grey to our stallion roster, " said Gainesway's general manager Brian Graves. "Arrogate was cut out to be a top sire and we are excited to have one his best sons stand at Gainesway. His speed and good looks should prove to be very popular with...

There were three different winners of the Triple Crown races and the four Grade I preps leading up to the GI Kentucky Derby were won by still four other horses. That means that as the second half of the 3-year-old season starts in earnest with the July 20 GI Haskell Stakes at Monmouth, the race for the 3-year-old championship is as wide open as possible. Danny Gargan, the trainer of GI Belmont Stakes winner Dornoch (Good Magic), knows that. But Gargan, who has never lacked confidence in his 3-year-old colt,...