Sunday’s Saratoga picks – July 12

The second of 10 (!) Saturday cards at the 2026 Saratoga Race Course meeting arrives as we near the midpoint of July and rev up for the start of The Saratoga Special’s 26th publishing season. Saturday’s 11-race slate features a pair of stakes – the Grade 2, $250,000 Caress Stakes for fillies and mares sprinting … Read more

Week 2 rolls along – it’s already Day 5 can you believe it? – with a 10-race card Friday topped by a strong renewal of the Grade 3 Victory Ride Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at 6 furlongs on the main track. A field of 10 entered the $225,000 Victory Ride including Grade 1 winners Tommy … Read more

The second week of the extended 2026 Saratoga Race Course meetings kicks off Thursday with a another nine-race card and a rare day without a stakes race here in upstate New York. How’s your bankroll faring after opening weekend? Fear not if it’s not up to par, there’s plenty of time to make up for … Read more

The first weekend of the 2026 Saratoga Race Course meeting comes to a close Sunday with a nine-race card – remember nine race cards? – topped by the inaugural running of the Grade 1 Leo O’Brien Handicap over jumps and the Grade 3 Kelso and Harvey Pack for older horses on the grass. Back to … Read more

Happy Birthday America. Saratoga Race Course celebrates the 250th with a stacked 11-race Independence Day card featuring the Belmont Derby and Belmont Oaks and the Suburban Stakes. Toss in the Sanford – and $1 hot dogs – and it’s an extravaganza of red, white and blue proportions. The Saturday card starts at 12:35 p.m., which … Read more

And so it begins. The 2026 Saratoga Race Course meeting – the longest in history at 46 days, and we’re not counting the five dates for the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival – kicks into gear Friday. A steam bath awaits the Opening Day card, which features three stakes with the Schuylerville, Saranac and Wild Applause. … Read more

Editor’s note: A feature on Magnitude from the Aug. 23, 2025, edition of The Saratoga Special. Then, he was looking to spring an upset of Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty in the Travers. Magnitude finished third, 20 3/4 lengths behind Sovereignty. Nine or so months later, everything is different. Magnitude is the top older horse in … Read more

Alex Lieblong hung a left, around some plastic chain link fencing, through a hallway under the clubhouse box seat stairs toward the late afternoon diners noshing their desserts at tables on the porch. He hadn’t made the walk in more than a decade and didn’t need a map. “Been there,” Lieblong said, walking through a … Read more

By Darby O’Brien Trainer Mark Casse raised a triumphant fist as he stood along the rail of Saratoga Race Course’s winner’s circle to watch Classic Q roll home. Three fillies. Three Grade 1s.  Not a bad two days in the office. “I’ve been coming here since I was 10,” said Casse in the winner’s circle, … Read more

When Englishman first started training for Cherie DeVaux at Keeneland last summer, he didn’t immediately tip his hand. It wasn’t until the Maxfield colt, a $400,000 purchase at the 2024 Keeneland September sale by Mayberry Farm, turned in a 5-furlong gate work that DeVaux saw signs of serious talent. “He came in with high remarks … Read more