GI Haskell Stakes

GI Pacific Classic winner Knightsbridge (Nyquist) vs GI Whitney winner and 2025 Horse of the Year Sovereignty (Into Mischief). Oct. 31 at Keeneland. Horse of the Year and $7 million on the line in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. Is it okay to dream? For the dream race to become a dream race, at least one box is left to be checked. Sovereignty will need to win the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup on Sept. 18 at Belmont, not exactly an easy task considering the opposition is expected to include...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It's not a done deal by any means, but trainer Chad Summers is taking a long, hard look at running GI Preakness Stakes winner Napoleon Solo (Liam's Map) in the GI DK Travers Stakes Aug. 29. "We are strongly considering the Travers," Summers said on the Saratoga backstretch Wednesday morning. "The Travers is a very historic race. [GI Kentucky Derby, GI Belmont Stakes winner] Golden Tempo (Curlin) is clearly the clear-cut favorite for championship honors for 3-year-old of the year, maybe the best 3-year-olds need to...

Lindsay Schultz had a lot to celebrate on this week's TDN Writers' Room. The trainer discussed her breakout victory in the GI Haskell Stakes with Baby Vino. Elsewhere on the show, the Writers' Room team recapped graded stakes racing at Monmouth, Saratoga and Del Mar, and looked ahead to this coming weekend.

GI Preakness Stakes hero Napoleon Solo (Liam's Map) has made the trip from Belmont Park to Monmouth and has settled into Barn 21 ahead of Saturday's GI Haskell Stakes. The two-time elite-level winner shared a van with fellow Gold Square LLC-owned and Chad Summers-trained Dry Powder (Gun Runner), who is set for the GII Molly Pitcher Stakes on the Haskell undercard. Summers says Napoleon Solo will be out on track Monday, but will not be doing any serious preparation at this point. The conditioner added that the plan would be...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - If he is going to win his eighth riding title at Saratoga Race Course, Irad Ortiz Jr. is going to have to be a closer. The perennial champion jockey at Saratoga has won the last four championships at the Spa, but the playing field has been leveled this year. The 33-year-old Ortiz won't begin his Saratoga summer until Sunday, giving his competitors a six-day head start. Ortiz has been serving a six-day suspension which came about from Saratoga last summer and Delaware Park last month. Four...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Let's just hold off on handing the 2026 Eclipse Award for top jockey to Jose Ortiz. Says who? Says Ortiz. It's true that the 32-year-old Ortiz has had a phenomenal first half of the season with wins in the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Belmont Stakes [with Golden Tempo (Curlin)] and the GI Dubai World Cup and GI Stephen Foster Stakes [with Magnitude (Not This Time)]. He has also ridden the best 3-year-old male sprinter in the land in Englishman (Maxfield) and is the regular rider...

Fresh from one of the biggest wins in her training career to date, Lindsay Schultz took a moment this week to appreciate a new milestone, following Baby Vino (Vino Rosso)'s dominant 10-length victory in Saturday's Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park. The journey to this point began long before the 37-year-old Schultz saddled the son of Vino Rosso for the first time. "My journey started when I was really young. I started riding horses at nine or 10, with a friend at summer camp and I loved it." What began in...

Monmouth Park and the connections of last year's champion male sprinter, Book'em Danno (Bucchero), are negotiating to get the five-year-old New Jersey-bred gelding to race at Monmouth on Friday, July 17, which is the day before the track's premier event, the GI Haskell Stakes. Dennis Drazin, the chairman and chief executive officer of Darby Development LLC, which operates Monmouth, disclosed the plans during Wednesday's New Jersey Racing Commission meeting. Drazin explained that the initiative would involve a special day in Book'em Danno's honor, with the aim of promoting the overall...

In the morning after his GI Preakness Stakes triumph, Napoleon Solo (Liam's Map) was in good form, according to trainer Chad Summers, and will target the GI Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park as his next start. "He's good today," Summers told the TDN. "He's been very playful. I came back last night at about midnight just to have a quiet moment with him after all the hoopla. He ate all his food, so I gave him another scoop and he ate all that right away." "He's full of spunk and...

Hall of Famer Bob Baffert will not point GII Pat Day Mile victor Crude Velocity (Beau Liam) to the GI Preakness Stakes next Saturday, and will instead target the GI Woody Stephens Stakes with an eye on the GI Haskell Stakes later in the summer, the trainer confirmed to Agentes 305. According to a post on X from the aforementioned page, Baffert was 'very tempted' but ultimately decided against the entry as it was coming up too quickly for the 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard'. The Stephens runs at...

At the OBS March Sale, trainer Michael McCarthy confirmed that his prize pupil Journalism (Curlin) continues to work well out in California as the colt prepares for his 4-year-old debut. "He's training great," McCarthy told TDN. "I don't see a whole lot of difference in him this spring compared to last. He's holding his weight well. Obviously, he's put some on since having a little bit of a break. He's training forwardly." McCarthy said that Journalism has drilled two good half-mile works at Santa Anita Park. "We're going to work...

Journalism (Curlin) who took three Grade I races during his 3-year-old season, will not be retired to stud at Coolmore America just yet, but will instead resume training for a 2026 campaign, according to co-owner Aron Wellman of Eclipse Thoroughbreds. "We are thrilled to announce that Journalism will be returning to race next season," said Wellman in an email. "Coolmore have been wonderful partners and sportsmen as it relates to arriving at this collective decision on Journalism's future and we all share in the belief that Journalism is bred, built...