Horseplayers have a judgment call to make with Street Warrior, the probable favorite in Saturday night’s 10,000 Lakes who will give up recency to all of his rivals but one in the $50,000 stakes at Canterbury.
The 10,000 Lakes will share a card with the $50,000 Lady Slipper for fillies and mares. Both races will be run over six furlongs and are restricted to 3-year-olds and up bred in Minnesota.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – In a career that will soon eclipse 6,000 wins, it could be hard to single out an individual highlight. For Todd Pletcher, not so much.
It is 19 years since the filly Rags to Riches overcame a stumble at the start and outfinished Preakness winner Curlin, a subsequent two-time Horse of the Year, with a 23.83-second final quarter-mile that propelled her to win the 2007 Belmont Stakes by a head. It was the first win in a Triple Crown race for Pletcher, who has since won three more Belmonts and two Kentucky Derbies.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The question, using both history and form analysis as a guide, is not whether trainer Chad Brown will win the Just a Game Stakes on Saturday at Saratoga, but with whom.
Brown won his first Just a Game with Antonoe in 2017. He has won every Just a Game since, save for 2022, when Charlie Appleby and Godolphin swept the top two placings.
The way things have gone this Churchill Downs meet for the trainer Wesley Ward, the Mighty Beau Stakes will feature a destructively fast pace, fall apart, and land in the lap of the Ward-trained No Nay Hudson.
“Hot barn” rubbish aside, this could really happen. The Mighty Beau is a $225,000 grass race contested at five furlongs. Of course, some very quick horses who would prefer to lead are entered – that’s the nature of this game. But there comes a breaking point, pace-wise, to every race of any sort, and the Mighty Beau might cross on over to the other side of it.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Jose Ortiz was the leading rider on the New York Racing Association circuit three times during the 13 years he was based here and that didn’t include 2017, the year he won the Eclipse Award as North America’s champion jockey.
Two years ago, Ortiz made the move to Kentucky – and in the winter Louisiana – and things are only getting better.
On Friday at Gulfstream Park, Rezasrolex returns to the overnight ranks, a level at which he is unbeaten over a remarkable two years.
The 5 1/2-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds and up on Tapeta is an allowance that carries a claiming option of $75,000. A field of six is set to start, including millionaire Coppola and multiple stakes winner Eamonn.
Rezasrolex, a Florida-bred by Bucchero, last lost an overnight race on June 2, 2024, when he finished fourth in a first-level allowance at Gulfstream.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The recent improvement from Fitz Right has left trainer Chad Brown eager to see how she performs in the most prestigious race of her career in Friday’s Grade 2 Wonder Again Stakes at Saratoga.
Fitz Right won an allowance race at a mile on turf by 5 1/2 lengths at Tampa Bay Downs in January, her first start since a last-place finish in a field of six in the Chelsey Flower Stakes at Aqueduct last November.
“She had a nice comeback race at Tampa,” Brown recalled earlier this week. “I was really surprised. It was her breakthrough.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It was this time last year that Nitrogen transitioned from turf to dirt. Victories in the off-the-turf Wonder Again and Grade 1 Alabama at Saratoga were Nitrogen’s last two of six wins in a campaign that ended with a runner-up finish in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and a 3-year-old filly divisional championship.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Through the late spring and summer of 2025, Book’em Danno was the dominant sprinter at Saratoga, winning three consecutive graded stakes en route to winning an Eclipse Award as champion sprinter.
To reach the same year-end objective, there will be variations on the itinerary in coming months, according to trainer Derek Ryan. A start at Monmouth Park in July is under strong consideration, part of a plan to have Book’em Danno on course for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Oct. 31 at Keeneland. Book’em Danno did not start in the 2025 BC Sprint at Del Mar.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – They rushed to the entry box for the Kentucky Oaks five weeks ago, as 17 3-year-old fillies were entered in a race that ultimately went to post with 13. The wide-open nature of the Oaks was reflected in a tote board that saw the top four choices go off at odds between $5.11-1 and $5.79-1.
Many have steered clear of the entry box for Friday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Acorn Stakes at Saratoga. Only five, albeit a very good five, are in the field set to run 1 1/8 miles over the main track – but there is no longer doubt regarding the horse to beat.
