GI Saratoga Derby Invitational

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- There have been some days for trainer Chad Brown. Some real big days. Remember Arlington Million day in 2019? He won all four graded stakes races, including all three GI races. He has won a bushel full of Breeders' Cup races in his career; more than once he has had multiple winners. Brown has a pair of GI Preakness Stakes on his resume. What happened Saturday might just trump them all. At his hometown track, Brown blitzed his competition, winning four races, capped off by the...

Before Sovereignty (Into Mischief) and Journalism (Curlin), there was Fierceness (City of Light) and Sierra Leone (Gun Runner). While we patiently wait for round three between the top two 3-year-olds in the country, last year's two standout sophomores and 'TDN Rising Stars' Fierceness and Sierra Leone will meet for the fifth time and first this year in Saturday's GI Whitney S. at Saratoga, a 'Win and You're In' for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. Fierceness defeated Sierra Leone in both the GII Jim Dandy S. and GI Travers S. at...

As recently as 2015, it looked like Dylan Davis's career was stuck in neutral. He won just 57 races that year with earnings of $1,859,318. He was, at best, a middle-of-the-pack rider on the NYRA circuit. Fast forward to 2024 and a new Davis has emerged. With three months to go on the year he's already won 147 races and earned $11,318,656 and is on schedule to have the best year of his career. His win aboard Todd Pletcher trainee Tapit Trice (Tapit) in last Saturday's GII Woodward Stakes was...

By winning last Sunday's GI Saratoga Derby Invitational, Carson's Run (Cupid) secured a spot in the AUS$5-million Ladbrokes G1 W. S. Cox Plate on October 26 in Australia. In U.S. dollars, the race is worth about $3.3 million. It's an invitation his connections  are seriously considering. "We're interested," said Terry Finley, the managing partner of West Point Thoroughbreds, which owns the horse with Steven Bouchy. "It is a very lucrative package. I haven't talked to (trainer) Christophe Clement about it yet but we are definitely game. That's an awful lot...

The 10-race card scheduled for Friday, Aug. 9 at Saratoga Race Course has been canceled due to heavy rainfall and high winds associated with Tropical Storm Debby forecast to impact Saratoga and the greater Capital Region overnight and throughout the day on Friday, the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) announced Thursday evening. Friday's featured $125,000 Evan Shipman and $125,000 Union Avenue will be rescheduled. Saratoga Race Course will be closed to the public on Friday. Live racing is slated to resume Saturday at Saratoga with first post at 12:35...

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) moved Saturday's GI Saratoga Derby Invitational [Race 7] and the GII Troy Stakes [Race 10] due to heavy overnight rainfall and will shift the races to Saturday, Aug. 10, the track said in a release Saturday morning. All of Saturday's remaining turf races [Race 1, Race 4, Race 9, Race 13] have been moved off the turf. Updated post times for Saturday's now 11-race card, which kicks off at 12:05 p.m. ET., are: Race 2 [12:45 p.m.], Race 3 [1:25 p.m.], Race 4...

For the second consecutive year, the winner of the $600,000 GI Saratoga Derby Invitational at Saratoga Race Course Aug. 3 will receive an invitation to the A$5 million G1 Ladbrokes Cox Plate at Moonee Valley in Melbourne, Australia, according to a New York Racing Association release Monday. The winning connections of this year's Saratoga Derby, which was established in 2019 and is contested over 1 3/16 miles [1900 meters], will be afforded an automatic berth into the 2024 Ladbrokes Cox Plate, with subsidies for transportation and accommodation. In 2021, Joseph...