SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y - While heavy rain fell outside his barn Sunday morning, Dornoch was inside his stall attacking his hay net early with an energy belying the fact he just ran a hard race to win Saturday’s $2 million Belmont Stakes.
“He’s all pumped this morning,” trainer Danny Gargan said. “That’s just the way he is. He was pissed after the Derby.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Cogburn emerged from his scintillating victory in Saturday's Grade 1, $500,000 Japiur Stakes on the Saratoga turf in good order, and could aim for another stakes victory here this summer before some rich targets in the fall.
Measured Time will stay 1 1/2 miles, his trainer, Charlie Appleby believes, but the colt won’t get a chance to prove it for a while.
Measured Time won his first Grade or Group 1 race Saturday at Saratoga, capturing the 1 3/16-mile Manhattan Stakes by two lengths, and with a steadily improving pattern and only eight starts behind him, odds are it won’t be his last.
Total handle on the Belmont Stakes on Saturday at Saratoga Racecourse was $60.9 million, the highest since the 2018 running of the race, when Justify won the Belmont and the Triple Crown, according to charts of the races.
The total amount bet, including all multi-race bets ending in the Belmont, was up 7.73 percent over last year’s total of $56.5 million, according to the charts, and it just narrowly edged the total for the 2021 race, which was $60.15 million. That was the highest total for the Belmont since the 2018 race, when betting was $79.7 million.
Through nine decades, Golden Gate Fields has had a rich history as an integral part of Northern California racing. Here’s a glance at some of the most historic days in advance of the track’s closure on Sunday.
Feb. 1, 1941 – A delayed 33-day meeting begins with a program run on a muddy track. A week later, the second Saturday program turns out to be the final day of the season before it is canceled because of an unsafe surface. All 40 races were run on an off track.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – As impressive as it was for trainer D. Wayne Lukas to win the Preakness Stakes at age 88, exercise rider Danny Ramsey may have him beat.
At age 74, Ramsey still gets on five to seven horses every morning, something he has done since coming to the United States in 1970 following a five-year riding career in his native Nassau, Bahamas. For the last few weeks, Ramsey has been the regular exercise rider for Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan and Kentucky Oaks winner Thorpedo Anna.
The Louisiana Racing Commission on Tuesday afternoon voted unanimously to rescind two rules that would have significantly relaxed the regulations governing the administration of clenbuterol, a bronchial dilator that has been widely abused in racing, and a potent corticosteroid that is typically injected into sore joints.
It’s a major change on the spring schedule: The Belmont Stakes will be contested Saturday at Saratoga Race Course, at a distance of 1 1/4 miles. The massive renovation of Belmont Park necessitates the move for the next two years; the configuration of Saratoga’s 1 1/8-mile track necessitates the distance shift from the traditional 1 1/2 miles.
