Thu, 06/05/2025 - 15:53

Fair Hill Training Center to upgrade synthetic surface with Tapeta 13

Fair Hill Training Center Sept 23 2022
Barbara D. Livingston
The Fair Hill Training Center includes a Tapeta track, a dirt oval, a one-mile turf course, and 18 privately owned barns.

The Fair Hill Training Center will upgrade its seven-furlong Tapeta Footings track this summer. One of the first facilities to embrace synthetic in 2006, Fair Hill will replace the current installation with Tapeta 13, the newest iteration of the surface.

Wed, 06/04/2025 - 13:57

Fierceness climbing the ranks of Pletcher's all-time best horses

Barbara D. Livingston
Fierceness has shed his early career inconsistency and become a leading older male.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher has a number of candidates from which to choose when he’s asked to name the best horse he’s ever trained. After running through a bushel of potential nominees, the Hall of Fame trainer settled on Left Bank.

“He ran seven-eighths in 1:20 in the Tom Fool and came back and set a track record in the Whitney,” said Pletcher, referring to Left Bank’s 1:47.04 clocking in the 2002 Whitney, a mark that was lowered five years later by the Pletcher-trained Lawyer Ron, who ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:46.64, a record that still stands.

Wed, 06/04/2025 - 12:07

Belmont Stakes 2025: Rodriguez headed in right direction, but is he there yet?

Rodriguez gallops under Simon Harris at SAR June 4 2025
Barbara D. Livingston
Rodriguez gallops under Simon Harris on Wednesday. Bob Baffert intends to have Mike Smith put Rodriguez on the lead in the Belmont.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – More often than not when he’s come to the Belmont Stakes, trainer Bob Baffert has had the horse to beat. In five of the 12 Belmonts in which he’s run, Baffert was attempting to complete a Triple Crown, something American Pharoah did in 2015 and Justify accomplished in 2018.

Wed, 06/04/2025 - 09:27

WATCH: Andrew Beyer, Steven Crist, and Brad Free share their 2025 Belmont Stakes picks and analysis

Join Daily Racing Form's Andrew Beyer, Steven Crist, and Brad Free as they discuss the 2025 Belmont Stakes and Metropolitan Handicap, providing selections and analysis.

Mon, 06/02/2025 - 14:29

Belmont Stakes 2025: Third in the Derby, Baeza may be even better now

Baeza works at SAR June 2 2025
Barbara D. Livingston
Baeza ran a bang-up race in the Kentucky Derby despite running into traffic problems. Trainer John Shirreffs said he has continued to improve the past five weeks.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Baeza was all the buzz in the weeks leading up to the Kentucky Derby. A potential victim of the tweaking of qualifying rules by Churchill Downs left Baeza on the Derby fence even through entry day, when he was relegated to the also-eligible list.

Two days before the race, when Rodriguez was scratched from the Kentucky Derby due to a bruised foot, Baeza, the Santa Anita Derby runner-up, drew into the field. Baeza validated all the angst of his potential exclusion with a solid third-place finish behind Sovereignty and Journalism in the Kentucky Derby.

Sun, 06/01/2025 - 19:04

Future Is Now looks to repeat as Intercontinental winner

Coady
Future is Now won the Franklin Stakes at Keeneland in October.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - In the past, she’d get in too much of a hurry, but Future Is Now just needed time to figure it all out. Maturation – and uniting with jockey Paco Lopez – turned Future Is Now from a one-way burner into a horse racing with intention. Her intention is to hit the wire first.

She does so frequently. Five of her last six starts produced wins and, on Thursday at Saratoga, Future Is Now tries for a repeat victory in the Grade 2, $200,000 Intercontinental Stakes.

Sun, 06/01/2025 - 18:52

Nysos finds old brilliance as he begins quest for BC Classic berth

Benoit
Nysos was given a 108 Beyer Speed Figure for the victory in the Triple Bend Stakes on Saturday.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The brilliance Nysos showed by winning his first three starts in late 2023 and early 2024 was again on display when he won for the first time this year in Saturday’s Grade 3 Triple Bend Stakes at Santa Anita.

Last year, the hype surrounding Nysos focused on his chances in the 3-year-old division. The current gameplan is to get the colt to the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar on Nov. 1.

Sun, 06/01/2025 - 18:01

Fierceness, White Abarrio draw posts 1-2 for Metropolitan Handicap

Barbara D. Livingston
White Abarrio drew post 2 for Saturday's Metropolitan Handicap at Saratoga.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Fierceness and White Abarrio will line up side by side for their showdown in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Metropolitan Handicap at Saratoga.

Fierceness, the 2024 Travers winner and 2-year-old champion of 2023, drew the rail in the Met Mile, which drew a field of only five, but four of those horses have combined to win 13 of their last 16 starts.

Sun, 06/01/2025 - 12:35

Journalism will run in Belmont, McCarthy confirms

Barbara D. Livingston
Journalism won the Preakness two weeks after finishing second to Sovereignty in the Kentucky Derby.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Journalism had always struck his trainer Michael McCarthy as a horse that could handle the three-races-in-five-weeks rigors of the Triple Crown. On Sunday, after watching him put in a terrific workout over Saratoga’s main track, McCarthy will give Journalism the chance to prove him right.

Sat, 05/31/2025 - 19:45

Acorn tops six graded stakes on Saratoga's Friday program

Barbara D. Livingston
Good Cheer, the Kentucky Oaks winner, will race in the Acorn at Saratoga on Friday.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The five-day Belmont Stakes Festival really kicks into high gear on Friday with the first of two consecutive 14-race programs at Saratoga. The card includes six graded stakes topped by the Grade 1 Acorn for 3-year-old fillies that features the local debut of the undefeated Kentucky Oaks winner Good Cheer. 

First post on Friday is 11:40 a.m.