Bring Theband Home goes for Harvey Pack repeat following long layoff
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Bring Theband Home and Twenty Six Black, a couple of very talented grass sprinters with an affinity for the turf at Saratoga, will cross paths once again and loom the ones to beat amongst a full field of 10 set to go 5 1/2 furlongs here Sunday in the $200,000 Harvey Pack Stakes.
Bring Theband Home is perfect in three starts at Saratoga, among those victories was a convincing gate-to-wire, 4 1/4-length triumph in the 2025 Harvey Pack for which he earned a career-best 109 Beyer Speed Figure. The race served as a stepping-stone to the most important win of his career four weeks later in the Grade 2 Troy.
Bring Theband Home will attempt to defend his Harvey Pack title off an extended layoff, having not started since finishing a troubled ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint eight months earlier at Del Mar.
“We felt he kind of went over the top at the end of the year and wasn’t performing to his abilities so as we often do, especially with horses owned by Mrs. [Charlotte] Weber, who likes to give them plenty of time, we sent him to her farm,” trainer Mark Casse explained. “Given his record at Saratoga, it just made sense to wait to bring him back and aim him for this meet.”
Bring Theband Home has had just three published works prepping for his return, all locally, including a near bullet half-mile on June 19 and a three-furlong blowout from the gate six days later.
“I got him about a month ago and he’s doing well,” Casse said. “I though his half-mile work was tremendous, especially the way he galloped out, after which we gave him a little tune-up out of the gate just to remind him. He drew the rail on Sunday, but if the real Bring Theband Home shows up, we shouldn’t have any worries.”
Twenty Six Black has two wins and has finished in the money in six of his eight local turf outings for trainer Horacio De Paz. Two of those races were runner-up finishes behind Bring Theband Home, whom he chased home under allowance conditions here during the summer of 2024 and again in last year’s Troy.
Twenty Six Black also was given the winter and much of the spring off. He has had two starts this season, including a wide-running fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Jaipur here four weeks earlier.
“I thought he ran honest against that field of horses in the Jaipur over a racetrack that catered towards speed horses and played a little against his style,” De Paz noted. “Hopefully, we can turn the tables on Bring Theband Home this time, he is coming off the layoff, although Mark’s horses usually come ready to run off the bench.
“Hopefully, the course isn’t playing to speed, he gets a clean trip, and they come back to him a little at the end.”
Those looking to side against the two likely favorites have plenty of viable options, among them the recent Grade 3 winner Possiblemente and California invader Boss Sully, along with the multiple turf stakes winners Chasing Liberty and Outlaw Kid.
Possiblemente shipped to Woodbine to capture the Grade 3 Jacques Cartier Stakes on May 30, his third win in the last four starts, for trainer Joe Sharp. Possiblemente’s lone setback during that run was a fifth-place finish in the Grade 2 Twin Spires Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs on Derby Day.
Boss Sully has journeyed cross-country off a popular, 1 1/2-length tally in the Siren Lure Stakes two months ago at Santa Anita. He led at every call while stretching out to six furlongs for trainer Brian Koriner.
Chasing Liberty and Outlaw Kid finished first and second, respectively, just noses apart in the Jim McKay Turf Sprint on May 16 at Laurel Park. Chasing Liberty slipped through a narrow opening along the rail to hook up with Outlaw Kid near midstretch before ultimately proving best.
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