Handicapping Articles

Today marks a significant change to the NYRA stakes schedule as two Grade Is – the Jockey Club Gold Cup and the Flower Bowl will be run at Saratoga after being longtime fixtures of the Belmont Fall meet.

Happy Alabama Day!
Today we have two Graded Stakes for three year old fillies. Malathaat was the consensus divisional leader of this group before losing last month in the Coaching Club American Oaks to Maracuja. Search Results was another contender, but she didn’t fire at seven panels in the Test Stakes, finishing a distant third to Bella Sofia.

If there is any one horse that symbolizes racing at Saratoga, it is Fourstardave. “The Sultan of Saratoga” won a race at the Spa for eight consecutive years from 1987 to 1994. He found the winner’s circle in twenty-one of his remarkable one hundred starts, finishing in the money fifty-five times. “Dave” was a winning horse, a blue collar horse, a New York bred – he was one of our own. Appropriately, Fourstardave is forever with us at Saratoga as he is buried on the backside at Clare Court.

Happy Whitney Day! On frigid winter days when we look out across the frozen Upstate landscape, this is the Saratoga race card we daydream about. Five stakes races - three Grade Is (the Test, the Saratoga Derby, and the Whitney), the Grade II Glens Falls, and the listed Lure Stakes. The all stakes mandatory payout Pick 5 (races 6-10) should pay nicely given the depth of these fields. Enjoy! I’ll analyze the Saratoga Derby and the Whitney Stakes. Race 9 – The Saratoga Derby Invitational – Grade I One Mile and Three Sixteenths on the Mellon Turf, For Three Year Olds August 7th, 2021 This $1 million race…

This Saturday we have three graded stakes races for the first time this meet headlined by the Grade I Vanderbilt Handicap along with two Grade IIs – the Bowling Green, the Jim Dandy Stakes.

Happy Coaching Club American Oaks Day! There are two graded stakes this Saturday at Saratoga. The Grade III Caress Stakes sprinting on the turf for fillies and mares four and up will be run as the “feature” race. The Grade I Coaching Club American Oaks for three year old fillies at nine furlongs on the dirt will be run as Race 5 due to the small field size.