Saratoga Race Course

1st-DMR, $82K, Msw, 2yo, f, 5fT, 6:00 p.m. PERSIA (War Front), making her juvenile debut for breeder Ramona Bass and her son Perry, is the first offspring to race out of Miss Temple City (Temple City), who posted two of her three career Grade I wins against the boys. Purchased by Steve Young for $2.5 million at Fasig-Tipton November in 2017, Miss Temple City is a full-sister to GSW Pricedtoperfection, herself a $775,000 FTKNOV grad. Trained by Richard Mandella, Persia will have the services of Hector Berrios. Also entered is...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y--As part of his wife Audrey's birthday celebration Thursday, Martin Schwartz took her to the winner's enclosure after the opener at Saratoga Race Course. They know the space well, but It was their first visit there in four years. The Schwartzes walked their 2-year-old filly Gold Lightning (Bolt d'Oro) in from the track after she won the 1 1/16-mile turf maiden by 2 1/4 lengths. She reached the wire on the inner turf course 1:45.93 and paid $31.40. Under jockey Manny Franco, Gold Lightning delivered a solid off-the-pace...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Rattle N Roll (Connect)'s very promising and then down-a-bit career path is on a solid upward trajectory approaching the historic $1 million GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Saturday at Saratoga Race Course. With six wins--five of them in graded stakes--and just over $1.6 million in earnings, Rattle N Roll has been a big success for the Mackin family's Lucky Seven Stable. After a two-month break from competition, the chestnut will face seven others in the 1 1/4 miles Gold Cup, long one of the premier races...

Veteran jockey Junior Alvarado has been named the winner of the 2023 Mike Venezia Memorial Award. Alvarado, based this summer at Saratoga Race Course and the regular rider of GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Cody's Wish, was chosen by a committee comprised of members of the Venezia family, representatives of the Jockeys' Guild and retired Eclipse Award-winning jockey Richard Migliore. Alvarado will be recognized in a winner's circle ceremony at Saratoga Saturday. "The Venezia Memorial Award is about representing the sport we love so much in the best way...

10th-KD, $150K, Msw, 2yo, 1mT, 6:28 p.m. The European-style grass course situated on the Kentucky side of the southern border with Tennessee cards a maiden finale which draws $450,000 Keeneland September graduate from last year, PUBLIUS (Constitution). Bred by Twin Creeks Farm, the bay colt debuts out of Sharp Instinct (Awesome Again), who is the dam of seven winners from nine to race. The Brad Cox trainee, ridden by Florent Geroux, is a half-brother to GIII Excelsior S. hero Send It In (Big Brown). Also entered is the well-bred Tapitoro...

To the Editor: The campaign to abolish dirt racing in favor of synthetic surfaces may be well-intentioned, but is a dangerous knee-jerk overreaction that would accomplish little but the destruction of Thoroughbred racing as we know it. These advocates seem to have forgotten that we tried this a generation ago, when Southern California, Keeneland, and Dubai all switched to synthetic racing--and then tore out those tracks when it became obvious that they were producing misleading results and undeserving Grade I winners and champions. As Bob Baffert correctly said at the...

A field of eight juveniles will head postward in the 1 1/16-mile GIII With Anticipation S. over the lawn at Saratoga Thursday. West Point Thoroughbreds and Steven Bouchey's Carson's Run (Cupid) is already a winner over the course and trip where he broke his maiden by a late-running neck July 29. Carson's Run has worked back three times since his victory, most recently covering five furlongs in 1:03.25 (3/4) over the Oklahoma turf training track last Thursday. "He had a good work on the grass the other day. He's trained...

The Horseracing and Safety Integrity Authority has added two new safety precautions to be in place for the remainder of the Saratoga Race Course meet. HISA rule 2142(a) requires all horses running under the authority's jurisdiction to undergo post-entry screening between the time the entry is taken and the time the regulatory veterinarians perform their in-person physical inspections on race day. This function is generally carried out by local regulatory veterinarians, but going forward through the remainder of Saratoga's summer meet, a HISA veterinarian will perform these post-entry screenings to...

2nd-SAR, $136k, Msw, 2yo, 6f, 1:46 p.m. Stonestreet Stables' JUSTICE JULIA (Medaglia d'Oro) becomes the latest daughter of Grade I winner Dreaming of Julia (A.P. Indy) to be saddled by trainer Todd Pletcher, following in the large hoofprints left by two-time champion and multiple Grade I winner Malathaat (Curlin) and graded winner and Grade I placed Julia Shining (Curlin). Stonestreet will also be represented by the debuting in this affair by Emery (More Than Ready) from the Brad Cox barn. The dark bay filly was a $235,000 Keeneland November purchase...

In racing, there is nothing more horrific than watching a horse break down in front of you. My heart goes out to every person connected with each of the horses that has lost its life in this manner and to each fan who's witnessed this. As my husband said after Maple Leaf Mel's tragic end, "They're just innocent animals!" He left immediately after her death, horrorstruck, and, fortunately, was not at the track on Travers Day. Like countless other casual fans who've seen such awful things, it is unlikely that...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY. - In the wake of two fatal breakdowns during the Travers day program Saturday, New York Racing Association officials faced the questions of if they should immediately cancel the remaining races on the card at Saratoga Race Course and whether to run on Sunday. After fact-finding sessions both days, NYRA President and CEO David O'Rourke said the courses were deemed safe for competition--the jockeys were in agreement--and racing continued as scheduled. The catastrophic leg injuries that led to two horses being euthanized Saturday brought the total of...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - During a ceremony Sunday morning prior to the annual upstate New York Showcase Day, some of the ashes of the late GI Kentucky Derby and GI Preakness winner Funny Cide (Distorted Humor) were interred at Saratoga Race Course. The popular New York-bred foaled at the nearby McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds, and owned by the New York-based Sackatoga Stable, died at the age of 23 on July 16 from complications of colic at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY. He won the 2003 Derby and Preakness...