SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Before he won two Grade 1 races in 2025, Spirit of St Louis was the dominant turf male among New York-breds, winning five stakes in the division in 2023 and 2024.
A return to that level of competition in Wednesday’s $200,000 Kingston Stakes at Saratoga may end a five-race losing streak over 13 months for Spirit of St Louis, a 7-year-old gelding.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The three best races of Iron Dome’s career came last summer at Saratoga when he ran 1 1/8 miles against New York-breds. Under those circumstances, Iron Dome went 3 for 3, winning by a combined 28 1/4 lengths.
Wednesday, Iron Dome is back at Saratoga running 1 1/8 miles against New York-breds in the $200,000 Commentator Stakes, and he figures as the horse to beat once again.
It will be back to square one again for Alexander Helios when he returns from a much-needed freshening and tries to recapture his Grade 3-winning form as the likely favorite going 1 1/16 miles in Sunday’s $71,000 main event at Gulfstream Park. The race drew a field of six older horses and also includes the multiple graded-stakes placed Steal Sunshine and serves as the second leg of yet another mandatory Rainbow 6 payout with a pool expected to be in the vicinity of $1.25 million.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – She has only run three times, but Always a Runner, the Kentucky Oaks winner, has already advanced to near the top of the list of fillies Chad Brown has ever trained.
“She’s one of the best fillies I’ve had with that saddle towel on her,” Brown said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Disruptor, runner-up to T O Elvis in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes on May 2, will miss the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap due to an illness, trainer Todd Pletcher confirmed on Friday.
“He got sick after his race at Churchill. We ended up missing a week of training, he’s just not ready in time,” Pletcher said.
Disruptor, who before the Churchill Downs won the Grade 3 Challenger Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, has resumed galloping. Pletcher isn’t sure exactly where Disruptor would run next.
If the Sunday feature at Churchill Downs feels like a stakes disguised as an allowance race, that’s because for all intents and purposes it is.
A $141,000 purse, that’s clearly stakes-level money, and all eight of the entrants last ran in stakes competition, seven of them in at least two straight stakes.
The feature is carded for 5 1/2 furlongs on turf and restricted to 3-year-old fillies who have not won a graded race on grass.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Miguel Clement had originally planned on putting Deterministic on the Oklahoma turf course Friday for his final work in preparation for a defense of his title a week from Saturday in the Grade 1 Manhattan. But after taking a little run over the turf himself on Thursday evening, Clement opted to call an audible, instead breezing his Eclipse Award finalist on the Oklahoma dirt, going five furlongs in a very impressive 1:01.92 per Daily Racing Form.
Constitution River and Daryzan lead the betting for Sunday’s Group 1 French Derby at Chantilly Racecourse north of Paris after diverse starts to their careers.
Constitution River, trained in Ireland by Aidan O’Brien, has won 3 of 4 starts and his only race this year – a dominant win by seven lengths as the heavy favorite in the Dee Stakes at 1 5/16 miles at Chester Racecourse in England on May 7.
The $1.75 million French Derby is run at 1 5/16 miles.
Vive Veuve, who rallied up the rail to win the off-the-turf $200,000 Ouija Board Distaff in her dirt debut Monday at Lone Star Park, has returned home to Churchill Downs, according to her trainer, Joe Sharp.
Sharp said she will be considered for the $275,000 Anchorage, a 1 1/8 miles turf race for fillies and mares on June 27 at Churchill.
Vive Veuve was up for a half-length win in the Ouija Board and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 79 while making her first start since November.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – As it gets closer to finalizing the field for the $2 million Belmont Stakes to be run next Saturday at Saratoga, one thing that’s becoming clear is the pace scenario will likely not be as torrid as it was in the Kentucky Derby five weeks ago.
Of course, that is likely to have a significant impact on Golden Tempo and Renegade, who took advantage of a fast pace to close from the back of the pack in finishing one-two in the Kentucky Derby.
