Saratoga maidens

If you don't recognize the name of Gregg Day, it's because he's never before had a winner. Never before Saturday, that is, when both he and his debuting colt Universe (Global Campaign) had an out-of-this-world experience. They each broke their maidens, getting their first wins at Saratoga on the sport's most exciting maiden stage. "This is my first win ever in a race," said Day minutes after his initial visit to the winner's circle. "I can't hardly talk right now. I've lost my voice and I'm so excited. This is...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- When a barn is lucky enough to have a horse like Dornoch (Good Magic), the goal, naturally, is to find another one. A year ago, trainer Danny Gargan won the GI Belmont Stakes and GI Haskell Stakes with the talented 3-year-old. After Saturday's sixth race at Saratoga, a $100,000 maiden special weight for 2-year-old colts, Gargan was not about to proclaim he has found the second coming of Dornoch, but, hey, a guy and his partners can dream, can't they? At the end of the seven-furlong...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The photo had just been taken in the winner's circle after the second race at Saratoga Race Course Thursday afternoon and before Cadenza (Charlatan) even left, Blake Cox was on the phone. It was his dad, Brad Cox, checking in from Kentucky. Brad Cox is the trainer of record for the stable, but it's 24-year-old son Blake, his top assistant, who runs the show in Saratoga. "I told him she ran good," Blake Cox said after walking out of the winner's circle and making his way...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Though he was well aware of her pedigree, trainer Brad Cox said he didn't need a piece of paper to help him forecast Fille d'Oro's (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) future. "She didn't show us much on the dirt at Keeneland when she came in," Cox said. "She struggled a little bit on the dirt. We transferred her over to the synthetic and she really improved. Then we breezed her up here on the turf last week and she was really nice, a really good move." In...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - George Weaver, Javier Castellano and Belgian (Beau Laim) combined to make all the right moves Thursday that yielded an 11-length victory in the sixth race at Saratoga Race Course. When a mid-afternoon downpour forced the $100,000 maiden special weight race for 2-year-olds to be moved from the Mellon Turf Course to the main track, five of the nine horses entered were scratched. Weaver said he never considered taking Belgian, who he trains for Newtown Anner Stud Farm, out the contest. "He's handy enough on the dirt,"...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY -- Hindered at the start and helped at the end, when it counted the most, Quiet Street (Street Boss) launched her career Wednesday with a victory in the finale at Saratoga Race Course. The chart shows that the Godolphin homebred trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott won the $100,000 maiden special weight for 2-year-old fillies by a neck over Lit Ship (Midshipman). She completed the 5 1/2 furlongs on the Mellon Turf Course in 1:03.72 and paid $15.60. Getting to the wire first was an adventure....

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Though she wasn't exactly perfect leaving the gate in her career debut Sunday, Carmel Coast (Omaha Beach) did everything else right in the fifth race at Saratoga Race Course. With a 5 1/2-length victory in the $100,000 maiden special weight contest for 2-year-old fillies, Carmel Coast was an emphatic best-in-class performer. Runner-up Lovely Christina (Vekoma) was 10 1/2 lengths in front of third-place filly, Essential Coffee (Nyquist). Carmel Beach and jockey Kendrick Carmouche reached the wire in 1:17.25 and paid $12.20. The Legion Bloodstock team identified...

SARATOGA SPRINGS - About 15 minutes after Final Score (Not This Time) won Saratoga's fourth race--a $100,000 maiden special weight--Avery Johnson, who made his bones in another sport, cackled up in the clubhouse. He had just been part of the entourage of owner Mike Repole, who owns Final Score, a 1 3/4-length winner in the 1 1/16-mile test on the Inner Turf course. Repole is famous for massive winner's circle pictures, but the big dog wasn't in town Sunday, so the group was much more manageable. Johnson, 60, who spent...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Competing much like he trained, Golden Tornado (McKinzie) showed Saturday that he is a 2-year-old colt to pay attention to. While his connections were confident of his ability level, Golden Tornado made it clear that he was indeed ready for the prime time of a $100,000 maiden special weight test at the Spa with a 3 1/4-length triumph. Under Hall of Fame jockey Joel Rosario, the bay colt owned by Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, Antony Beck's Gainesway Stable and Legendary Thoroughbreds, stalked pacesetter Oscar's Hope (Twirling Candy),...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- You knew this wouldn't last much longer. Chad Brown's Saratoga barn has too much young talent inside of it. Eventually, the trainer was going to find his way to the winner's circle with one of his juvenile runners. That day was Saturday when Brown's Capital Partner (GB) (Kingman {GB}) unleashed a furious closing kick to win the second race at the Spa, a $100,000 maiden special weight for 2-yeasr-olds. With jockey Flavien Prat doing the steering, Capital Partner flew down the stretch in the 1 1/16-mile...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Many of the smiles and chuckles following Ted Noffey's victory in the first race at Saratoga Race Course Saturday had very little to do with his solid 1 1/2-length victory. They were about his name, which was the result of a very simple but humorous mistake, as his, err, namesake Ned Toffey explained. Toffey, for 21 years the general manager of Spendthrift Farm, which owns Ted Noffey, was chosen as Kentucky's Farm Manager of the Year in 2024, an honor that started the story. "One of...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Through 14 days of Saratoga's season, Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher's 2-year-olds are getting the job done. Pletcher picked up his fifth victory in the top-level $100,000 maiden special weight races Sunday when Tapit's Legacy (Tapit) cruised to a five-length victory in the third race under Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez. Pletcher has a 5-2-2 record from 15 starters in the open $100,000 races, a win percentage of 33 with a 60 percent finish in the top three. Last season, Pletcher won four of...