The Grey Wizard

Highlighted by a 17-1 upset victory by Dornoch (Good Magic) in the $2-million GI Belmont S., the four-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival drew better than 120,000 racing fans to Saratoga for the unprecedented event, approximately double the attendance for the two most recent runnings at Belmont Park. Thursday's opening day of the Festival featured a pair of $150,000 stakes for the 2-year-old males and females and the first of the weekend's 14 graded stakes, the GII Belmont Gold Cup. In front of an announced crowd of 22,027, renowned Australian commentator...

In a race that is longer than the vast majority of Thoroughbred races in the U.S., Thursday's two-mile GII Belmont Gold Cup S. was won in high style by Eclipse Thoroughbreds and The Estate of Albert Frassetto's The Grey Wizard (Ire) (g, 5, Caravaggio--Fancy {Ire}, by Galileo {Ire}), who waited until the final moments to close with a rush and nab the narrow victory from Champagne Juan (Justify). With the victory, The Grey Wizard annexed the Golden Ticket for the G1 Melbourne Cup at Flemington Nov. 5. Sent off at...

A berth in the G1 Melbourne Cup is at stake in Thursday's GII Belmont Gold Cup, the first of the weekend's graded stakes during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga. The New York Racing Association has gone so far as to fly in one of the world's premier commentators, Victoria-based Matt Hill, to describe the action in the two-mile test--essentially two laps of the inner turf course at the Spa. Godolphin won the 2018 Melbourne Cup with Cross Counter (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) and Siskany (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) returns to...