Jockey Club Gold Cup

The stakes schedule for the 2026 summer meet at Saratoga Race Course, which will open Friday, July 3, and continue through Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 7, was released by the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) Thursday. Highlighted by the 157th renewal of the $1.25-million DraftKings GI Travers Aug. 29 and the 99th edition of the $1-million GI Whitney Aug. 8, the 46-day summer meet will offer 20 Grade I races among 73 stakes worth over $23,575,000 in total purses. The summer meet will begin with a special July 4th...

According to a story by David Grening in the Daily Racing Form, according to trainer Bill Mott, the main goal in 2026 for the newly minted Horse of the Year Sovereignty (Into Mischief) will be the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. Mott said that while he has not yet mapped out a schedule for Sovereignty, he has already ruled out a start in the March 28 GI Dubai World Cup. That news came as somewhat of a surprise considering that Sovereignty's owner, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is Vice President...

The 2023 GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner White Abarrio (Race Day) breezed a half-mile in company Thursday at Gulfstream Park in preparation for a planned start in the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile Nov. 1 at Del Mar. Breezing outside of stablemate Practically Dark (Practical Joke), they covered four furlongs on a fast track :45.86, the fastest clocking of seven recorded at the distance. "Today was 24 days out, almost three weeks, so we wanted a strong work," said trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. "He put in a strong work. He...

2023 GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner White Abarrio (Race Day) will target the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. confirmed Thursday. The now 6-year-old, who started the year with a win in the GI Pegasus World Cup, has returned to Gulfstream Park from Saratoga, where he is scheduled to breeze next week for the first time since finishing fourth in the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Aug. 31. "Obviously, things didn't go the way we wanted in the Jockey Club. We're going to regroup in the Mile,"...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Early Sunday afternoon, Mike Repole wasn't sure if he had slept or not Saturday night. "I might have taken a nap from 2 (a.m.) to 4," Repole said in the Saratoga box seat area. "I am running high on adrenaline right now." Sixteen hours earlier, Repole, with 40 friends and family--including Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher--gathered at his Saratoga house and watched Fierceness (City of Light) overcome a world of trouble and still draw off to a 3 1/4-length win over GI Preakness Stakes winner...

Jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., who was thrown from Mindframe (Constitution) shortly after the start of the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Sunday at Saratoga, escaped serious injury in the incident, according to his agent, Steve Rushing. Ortiz was sent to Albany Medical Center for evaluation, and while tests were not completed, the signs were postiive at 7:30 p.m. Sunday night. "It looks like he escaped serious injury," Rushing texted Sunday evening. "We are still waiting on one more test." "He is cleared to ride," said Rushing. "We will see how...

Bi-coastal, 1 1/4-mile Grade I stakes over the weekend at Del Mar and Saratoga featured a number of contenders projected to target the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. The obvious winner was continent-crossing jockey John Velazquez, who parlayed a win in Saturday's GI Pacific Classic into a score 16 hours later in Sunday's GI Jockey Club Gold Cup. Here's a look how the horses who were in action emerged from those efforts and where they stand heading into the championship race. Fierceness: For a colt who has a reputation for sometimes...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--After the last two starts, there may be those who gave up on White Abarrio (Race Day). Saffie Joseph Jr., the trainer of the 6-year-old gray horse, isn't one of them. White Abarrio reappears at Saratoga on Sunday in the $1 million GI Jockey Club Gold Cup, a 1 1/4-mile test that has attracted some of the best older horses in the country. GI Whitney Stakes winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Sierra Leone is here, so is fellow 'Rising Star' Mindframe (Constitution), winner of all three of his...

Just how deep is Sunday's running of the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga, a 'Win and You're In' qualifier for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic in a little more than two months' time? Well, six of the eight remaining horses--GII Charles Town Classic winner Banishing (Ghostzapper) will be scratched--have recorded at least one Beyer Speed Figure of 104 or higher this year and three of the entrants are already Grade I winners this term. It is the very definition of a hot race. The field is led by...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Last Friday, trainer David Jacobson watched as his ultra-consistent 5-year-old gelding Banishing (Ghostzapper) won the $1-million GII Charles Town Classic Stakes by 2 1/4 lengths. Jacobson is toying with the idea of bringing Banishing back to the races on Sunday to run in the $1-million GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes at Saratoga. All signs are pointing that way: the horse has already shipped up to the Spa and Jacobson entered Banishing in the race. He is among the nine horses that were entered Wednesday, which...

FOX broadcast network will provide television coverage of the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup from Saratoga Race Course Sunday, August 31, NYRA announced Thursday. Additionally, a special edition of Saratoga Live presented by Caesars Sportsbook will air on FOX from 1-2 p.m. To allow for national broadcast viewership, Jockey Club Gold Cup Day will feature a first post time of 11:20 a.m. The Jockey Club Gold Cup, which offers a "Win and You're In" berth to the GI Breeders' Cup Classic in November at Del Mar, has attracted an all-star...

Pyrenees (Into Mischief--Our Khrysty, by Newfoundland), winner of the GIII Pimlico Special Stakes and runner-up in the GI Stephen Foster Stakes and GI Jockey Club Gold Cup in 2024, has been retired from racing, according to Adam Corndorf, who bred and raced the horse in partnership with his mother Bonnie Baskin under their Blue Heaven Farm banner. A homebred son of Grade III winner Our Khrysty, purchased by Blue Heaven for $600,000 in foal to Tiznow at the 2011 Fasig-Tipton November Sale, Pyrenees broke his maiden by 4 1/2 lengths...