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Tom Law 
The buzz was right Monday night.
Presale hype – which isn’t all that loud on the quiet sales grounds but usually fairly reliable – was that a colt by Tapit would bring the highest price during Monday’s opening session of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale of selected yearlings. That wasn’t much of a stretch, considering that Tapit is America’s leading sire and the yearlings by him in the Saratoga catalog were considered the most athletic on the grounds.
Jimmy Toner added his name to the list of winners through the first 10 days of the meeting when Thieves Guild posted a mild upset in Sunday’s Caress Stakes. He won again Saturday as Recepta took the De La Rose Stakes on the Whitney undercard.
Everyone combing the grounds at the corner of Nelson and Madison Avenues the last few days is looking for the same thing in a somewhat roundabout way.
Amazing Anne is not called amazing for nothing. After running at Saratoga July 26, the Tom Morley trainee will return for not one but two races this week, under the stipulation that she comes out of the New York Stallion Series Stakes in good condition. She will then start in the filly division of the same race on Thursday.
Michael Dilger stood outside his well-kept courtyard complete with plush sod and neatly trimmed flowers and gave his honest take on the field for today’s $100,000 Alydar Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.
“There are years that this could have been the Whitney,” the trainer said matter-of-factly.
The location of Ian Wilkes’ barn at the far end of Clare Court might be one of the best on the grounds. The barn sits in a quiet spot on the corner, with Nelson Avenue to the west and the Greentree property to the south.
Two Grade 1 races, a Grade 3 event on the grass and a turf sprint allowance comprise the Saturday late $750,000 guaranteed pick four at Saratoga Race Course. It’s not an easy sequence, but this is what racing at Saratoga is all about with deep and competitive fields. Here’s the play from The Saratoga Special’s Billy Blake, a past qualifier for the National Handicapping Contest:
The stated objective of the NYRA racing department is to make a few select Saturdays during the association’s signature season at Saratoga feel like championship-caliber events. A summertime Breeders’ Cup if you will.
Chad Brown might need to channel his inner Todd Pletcher, Nick Zito and D. Wayne Lukas in Friday’s $200,000 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes albeit on a slightly smaller stage.
Cyclogenisis stood calmly next to George Weaver’s shedrow Tuesday morning, foot cocked, awaiting his turn for morning training. Peaceful as the big-boned gray appeared, his training session was anything but, and was complete with rearing and a good buck or two. Once he got rolling, the enormous 3-year-old son of Stormy Atlantic looked and sounded like a freight train as he galloped over the grass on the infield of the Oklahoma Training Track.
