Parchment Party back to best game in Birdstone Stakes
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Parchment Party’s past performances paint the picture of a horse who has a preferred type of race.
Long. On dirt.
Thursday, Parchment Party gets to do exactly that when he seeks a repeat victory in the $200,000 Birdstone Stakes going 1 3/4 miles at Saratoga. Parchment Party is 2 for 2 at this distance, having won not only the 2025 Birdstone but also that year’s Belmont Gold Cup, a race that was scheduled for two miles on turf but was run at 1 3/4 miles on dirt due to rain.
This year, Parchment Party has won 2 of 3 starts, the Temperence Hill at Oaklawn Park and Isaac Murphy Marathon at Churchill Downs, both at 1 1/2 miles. Mixed in among his last six starts were two double-digit-length losses.
One was the Melbourne Cup at two miles on turf in Australia. Parchment Party only went there because of a free berth earned into the race by virtue of his Belmont Gold Cup win. The other defeat was a seventh-place finish behind runaway winner Phileas Fogg in the Grade 2 Suburban here July 4.
“It was too short for him and we knew that,” said Bill Mott, trainer of Parchment Party. “We were just taking a shot. We felt to be ready for this race, we had to run somewhere to keep him in shape. If he runs his race, he’ll be a huge factor in there.”
John Velazquez rides Parchment Party from the rail.
Mott also entered Stars and Stripes, winner of the Grade 3 Ben Ali Stakes at Keeneland in April, who finished eighth in the Suburban. Mott said he planned to enter Stars and Stripes in Saturday’s $150,000 Philip H. Iselin Stakes at Monmouth Park but wonders if that 1 1/16-mile race might be too short for the 4-year-old son of Not This Time.
Interceptor, a 4-year-old gelding by Authentic, finished second to Parchment Party in the Isaac Murphy. He was off for two months when he finished third in a second-level allowance going 1 1/8 miles on June 26 at Churchill Downs.
“Last time, he had a little bit of a layoff, I wasn’t crazy about all the circumstances. More or less, we were trying to get a race under his belt,” trainer Mike Maker said. “We gave him two months off [after the Murphy], so I think he needed his last race.”
Irad Ortiz Jr. is named to ride Interceptor.
Jokestar, second, beaten just a half-length by Parchment Party, in the Temperence Hill Stakes, returns to the main track after running fifth in the Grade 2 Eclipse Stakes over Woodbine’s Tapeta track in May. The last time Jokestar went from Tapeta to dirt, he won the Post Time Stakes at Laurel by 6 1/2 lengths.
Jose Ortiz, who ended week 6 at Saratoga with a meet-best 40 victories, has the call on Jokestar for Kevin Attard.
Passing Game, a 5-year-old son of Medaglia d’Oro, earned his highest Beyer Speed Figure, a 92, when he finished second in the Valedictory Stakes going 1 1/2 miles over Woodbine’s Tapeta track last November. After two tries on turf this year, Passing Game returns to dirt, a surface on which he is 2 for 4, for the first time since he won a $50,000 claimer here going one mile over a sloppy track in August 2025.
Passing Game was claimed by Orlando Noda but was sold privately to Virginia Lazenby who was the breeder of the horse and who sold him for $500,000 at the 2022 Keeneland September yearling sale.
Passing Game will go out for trainer Ricky Hendricks, who ran him twice on turf this year without success.
“He’s been a little unlucky this year,” Hendricks told NYRA publicity. “We ran him at Penn National just to get a race into him and he got shut off and just got beat. He ran up here the other day and things didn’t go his way, but he still ran a credible race.” Annexperience, Waitlist, and Carolo Rapido complete the field.
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