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The Thoroughbred industry returned to Saratoga Springs for the extended weekend – at least in the afternoon hours, with plenty of horses still training at the Oklahoma Training Track – and we were there for the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga fall mixed and horses of racing age sale.
Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. The Saratoga clock is running – for us, for horses, for horsemen. The meet starts a week from tomorrow which means the first edition of The Saratoga Special goes to press a week from today. Yikes. There’s some great racing this weekend too, we’ll probably miss most of it while selling, packing, driving, organizing.
And the calendar turns to July. Really? Wise Dan won, just. Royal Ascot is over, sadly. Saratoga looms, gulp. Here’s your Here & There for Monday, July 1. We checked in with Wesley Ward about Royal Ascot, watched the jumpers at Parx and hit the annual Maryland Horse Breeders’ yearling show.
Palace Malice put it on everyone in the Belmont Stakes, proving that you never know what’s going to happen when you saddle them up and send them over. Dogwood Stable’s charge ran off and faded in the Kentucky Derby. Saturday, he listened, relaxed, rated and carried his speed 12 furlongs. On the jump side, Colonial Downs provided it usual thrills and longshot thrills.
A big night at Penn National, a win for new Team Valor trainer Rick Mettee and the beginning of some rumblings in advance of the Belmont Stakes.
Fair Hill Races, some Saratoga statements, a few statistics, clean-out-the-recorder quotes from the Preakness and more as we come back with another Here and There in Racing for the week. After a standout weekend on the country’s racetracks, we’re turning the corner and thinking Belmont Stakes and beyond
The racing – most of it anyway – was at Pimlico this weekend as stakes-filled lineups dominated Friday and Saturday. Orb didn’t win, so we’ll have to wait for a Triple Crown winner (again), but the Preakness delivered a little bit of everything including a record-setting 14th Triple Crown race win for trainer Wayne Lukas with Oxbow. Amazing.
The morning two days before the Preakness Stakes is always a little more lively and laid back than just about any other during the American racing year, with each of the entrants and just about all their connections on hand along with the annual Alibi Breakfast, and Thursday didn’t disappoint. Here’s a little of what TIHR soaked in.
Only on the TIHR Tour . . . we stopped at Nashville for a weekend of jump racing between the Derby and the Preakness. It took 3 miles to separate Demonstrative and Divine Fortune and Derby starter Mr. Hot Stuff continued his second chapter. Now, it’s on to Pimlico where Orb continues his orbit.
Orb won the Kentucky Derby, Grinding Speed rebounded from a fall to win the Virginia Gold Cup and now it’s on to the Nashville for the Iroquois Saturday and Baltimore for the Preakness next Saturday. Here’s your Here and There for post-Derby, post Gold Cup.
