SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The New York Racing Association will be offering many multiple-day wagers during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival.
Beginning Thursday, there was a two-day pick four using races 9 (Grade 3 Poker) and 10 on Thursday with races 1 and 2 on Friday. There is a two-day pick four using Friday’s 13th (Grade 1 Just a Game) and 14th with races 1 and 2 Saturday. Both races have a 50-cent base and a 24 percent takeout.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Choisya, who shipped in from England to win the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland in April and has shipped back in again from England for Friday’s Grade 1 Just a Game here, is expected to remain in the United States for the summer, co-trainer Ed Crisford said.
Crisford said provided Choisya runs well in the Just a Game, at one mile, she would be pointed to the Grade 1 Diana, at 1 1/8 miles here July 12. Choisya, a 5-year-old daughter of Night of Thunder, won the Group 2 Balanchine at Meydan in Dubai at 1 1/8 miles earlier this year.
SARATOGA, SPRINGS, N.Y. – Gosger, the Preakness runner-up, returned to the work tab Wednesday at Churchill Downs, breezing a half-mile in 49.20 seconds. Gosger is preparing for a probable start in the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell on July 19 at Monmouth Park, trainer Brendan Walsh said.
“He came out of the Preakness in good order, we gave him an easy time of it since, and we’ll look forward to having him for the second half of the year,” Walsh said. “The Haskell looks like our plan with him.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Immersive, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2024 who was sidelined earlier this year by bone bruising, is scheduled to make her 3-year-old debut in the $175,000 Monomoy Girl Stakes at Churchill Downs on June 14, trainer Brad Cox said.
At 1 1/16 miles, the Monomoy Girl could set Immersive up for a return to graded stakes company later this summer at Saratoga with potential spots being the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks on July 19 and/or the Grade 1 Alabama on Aug. 16.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Six of the eight spots in the starting gate had been assigned for Saturday’s 157th Belmont Stakes and the name Journalism had not yet been called. The rail and the seven remained.
It caused a little bit of anxiety for Aron Wellman, president of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, which co-owns Journalism, who didn’t want his horse and jockey Umberto Rispoli to start from the rail. Wellman exhaled when it was announced Journalism drew post 7.
Jockey Perry Wayne Ouzts continues to make milestones as he rode his 7,500th career winner on Saturday at Belterra Park.
Ouzts, who turns 71 on July 7, rode a pair of winners Saturday at Belterra Park for trainer Barbara Riley – taking the second race, a maiden special weight, on Calculated Move and then hitting the milestone win in the fourth race, an allowance, aboard Decree.
Ouzts closed May on a hot streak. In the final four days of the month at Belterra, he had four wins, two runner-up finishes, and a third.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Future Is Now hopes to strike up memories of the past when he seeks a repeat victory in the Grade 2, $200,000 Intercontinental Stakes on Thursday at Saratoga.
The Intercontinental, at 5 1/2 furlongs on the outer turf course, drew a field of nine turf runners and one main-track-only entrant. It is one of four stakes on a 10-race card that begins at 12:40 p.m.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Look Forward, who made a successful turnback in distance winning the Grade 2 Eight Belles Stakes at seven furlongs at Churchill Downs on May 2, will again try to stretch out when she starts in the Grade 1, $500,000 Acorn Stakes on June 6 at Saratoga.
On Friday, Look Forward worked a half-mile in 47.21 seconds over Saratoga’s main track, going in splits of 23.96 for the opening quarter and galloping out five furlongs in 59.92 seconds, six furlongs in 1:13.07, and seven furlongs in 1:27.92.
