Forte

Arcangelo (Arrogate) was in fine shape Sunday following his victory in the GI Travers S. at Saratoga Saturday, but connections will take their time before picking out a next start for the sophomore. "He came back well and is full of himself today," said trainer Jena Antonucci. "Of course the Breeders' Cup is on the radar, but horses don't care about schedules or spreadsheets. We'll do what we've been doing and give him his space. We'll let him pave the way." Arcangelo added the Travers to his win in the...

It's a bit of Christmas in August Saturday at venerable Saratoga Race Course, which plays host to no fewer than five Grade I events for horses of all ages--on dirt and on turf--topped by the main event on the summer calendar, the $1.25-million GI Travers S. While the fields are short on numbers, they are long on quality, as three of the races have attracted reigning Eclipse Award winners, none of whom are anything close to a cinch in their respective heats. Champion and 'TDN Rising Star' Forte (Violence) has...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - With the three winners of the Triple Crown races gathered for just the fourth time in the GI Travers S. Saturday, will history repeat itself? Will a horse that did not run in the GI Kentucky Derby, GI Preakness S. or the GI Belmont S. deliver an upset in the 154th Travers? That is how it played out in 1918 with Sun Briar, again in 1982 with Runaway Groom and six years ago when West Coast won the 2017 running of Saratoga's oldest stakes race. If...

As Tuesday's entry time looms, the GI Travers S. is shaping up as a rare showdown of the three winners of this season's Triple Crown races. That's happened only five times since 1978, and on no occasion during the last 45 years when the winners of those spring Classics all graced the starting gate for Saratoga's "Midsummer Derby" has any one of them emerged victorious. That's a fairly daunting stat considering how the match-up of the GI Kentucky Derby, GI Preakness S. and GI Belmont S. winners is essentially what...

No fewer than four of the seven 3-year-olds expected for Saturday's GI Travers S. got their final tune-ups Saturday morning, three over the Saratoga main track and one at Del Mar. Mage (Good Magic), the GI Kentucky Derby hero who figures no worse than the second betting choice behind Forte (Violence) in the 10-furlong feature, breezed three-quarters of a mile in 1:15.56 for trainer Gustavo Delgago. In what was described as a maintenance move beneath exercise rider J.J. Delgado, the son of former 'TDN Rising Star' Puca (Big Brown) went...

OGMA Investments, Ramiro Restrepo, Sterling Racing and CMNWLTH's GI Kentucky Derby hero Mage (Good Magic) turned in his penultimate breeze ahead of his anticipated appearance in the Aug. 26, GI Travers S., going six furlongs in 1:12.98 over the Saratoga main track Friday morning under exercise rider J. J. Delgado. According to Daily Racing Form, Mage galloped out seven furlongs in 1:26.31 and was up the mile in 1:40.66. It was a stiffer breeze than last week, when he covered five furlongs in 1:01.03 over a track with a high...

Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable's Forte (Violence) and Whisper Hill Farm and Gainesway Stable's Tapit Trice (Tapit), both 'TDN Rising Stars', worked in company over the main track Thursday in preparation for the GI Travers S. August 26 at Saratoga. Forte, with regular pilot Irad Ortiz, Jr. up, worked without blinkers to the outside of Tapit Trice, who was guided through the half-mile breeze by exercise rider Fernando Rivera. Both workmates stopped the clock in :48.33. "I thought both horses worked extremely well--both were moving really well and good...

It was a good week to have a Hall of Fame jockey on the TDN Writers' Room, presented by Keeneland, as the Green Group Guest of the Week and especially to have that jockey be Jerry Bailey, who knows a thing or two about analyzing a race for an audience. Bailey pulled no punches when asked about whether or not he felt Forte (Violence) should have been disqualified in the Jim Dandy Saturday at Saratoga. "I thought it was a bad call," said Bailey. "I thought he was the best...

Hall of Fame jockey and racing analyst Jerry Bailey joined this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast to break down the 2023 GII Jim Dandy S., where Forte survived an inquiry to get to the winner's circle.

We've been told that artificial intelligence is going to take over the world while also taking over the jobs currently being done by humans. I would imagine that would include the press coverage of horse races. I might have 35-years experience on the job, but that doesn't mean I match up to computers or machines being able to simulate human intelligence to perform tasks or solve problems. They say that within our lifetimes, artificial intelligence (AI) will have altered our world more significantly and faster than any other technology since...

by Beau Lane Rumor has it that Mike Repole said he was going to get out of the business if things didn't change. Well, I can see how Mr. Repole could feel that way; he's had some real kicks in the behind this year. But the racing industry needs more people like Mike Repole. He goes to the sales, buys nice horses, goes to the races, and takes his chances. He spends more than most and has Todd Pletcher for a trainer (there is no better), and so his chances...

Why didn't the New York stewards disqualify Forte (Violence) from his win in a controversial running of the GII Jim Dandy S. Saturday at Saratoga? The wagering public bet $3,167,647 on the race and that doesn't include any of the horizontal wagers. After Forte and Irad Ortiz Jr. bulled their way off of the rail near the top of the stretch, bumped Angel of Empire (Classic Empire) and took away his path, it looked like the horse deserved to come down. But that didn't happen. The bettors deserved an explanation....