SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Rain impacted Sunday’s card, but it hardly put a damper on the first Belmont Stakes Racing Festival held at Saratoga Race Course.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Kings River Knight, the winner of the $102,000 Crystal Water Stakes for California-bred turf milers at Santa Anita on May 25 for the second consecutive year, will have a vacation this summer.

“He’ll get 60 days on the farm for a little freshening,” trainer John Sadler said on Sunday.

Kings River Knight, a five-time stakes winner, has a remarkably consistent record of 10 wins in 16 starts and earnings of $649,830 for the partnership of Integrity Thoroughbred Partners, the family of the late Bud Johnston and Ken Tevelde.

ARCADIA, Calif. - In late March, trainer Jeff Mullins was worried he had made a mistake by entering the 3-year-old filly Sugar Fish in a $40,000 claimer for maidens at Santa Anita.

Fortunately for Mullins, there were no claims submitted for Sugar Fish, who won the seven-furlong race by 10 lengths.

Two starts and 10 weeks later, Mullins and owners Sweetwater Stable and Michael Talla are soon to decide what stakes best fit Sugar Fish in coming months.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - White Abarrio, the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner who finished a well-beaten fifth in Saturday’s Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap at Saratoga, is being transferred back to trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. and will be pointed to the Grade 2, $200,000 John Nerud Stakes at Aqueduct on July 6, co-owner Mark Cornett said Sunday.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga was like a home game for Bill Mott, and the Hall of Fame trainer certainly took advantage of the situation, winning two races on Friday and two more Saturday including the Grade 2 True North with a dazzling performance by Baby Yoda.

Unfortunately for Mott, that success was tempered somewhat by the disappointing efforts of Just F Y I in Friday’s Acorn, and Resilience the following afternoon in the Belmont. Both were virtually eased to the finish far behind the winner in their respective races.

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.

Didia did not linger in Saratoga Springs following her satisfying victory Friday in the Grade 1, $750,000 New York Stakes, and whether she returns to Saratoga this summer has yet to be determined.

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.