Emphasis

The GI Spendthrift Farm Hopeful Stakes is carded as the anchor for Monday's Labor Day festivities, which marks the last set of races for the season upstate. A scan through the past winners of the top-level affair over the past 25 years include a strong list of future sires. How about for starters Sky Mesa (2002), First Samurai (2005), Shanghai Bobby (2012) and Competitive Edge (2014)? More recently Practical Joke (2016), Mind Control (2018), Basin (2019), Jackie's Warrior (2020), Gunite (2021) and Forte (2022) got their picture taken before heading...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - A quick and eventful start provided Emphasis (Yaupon) with a strategic advantage that helped him win the seventh race Saturday at Saratoga Race Course. As a result, Emphasis--the "other" colt by first-year sire Yaupon in field of eight--led pretty much every step of the way and prevailed by a length in the $100,000 maiden special weight for 2-year-olds. Two and half lengths back in third was Stradale (Yaupon), the 4-5 favorite, who was bumped hard by Emphasis as they left the gate in the six-furlong dirt...

7th-Saratoga, $100,000, Msw, 7-19, 2yo, 6f, 1:11.83, ft, 1 length. EMPHASIS (c, 2, Yaupon--Connie and Michael {GISP, $136,860}, by Roman Ruler), who was unveiled as a 5-1 shot here alongside the pricey 'Insighted' first-timer Stradale (Yaupon), broke inward and briefly cutoff his opponent which resulted in the colt gaining the lead up the backstretch. The juvenile continued to make every pole a winning one through the top of the lane. Digging deep inside the final sixteenth, the dark bay felt some mild pressure from the debuting Growth Equity (Nyquist), but...