Saturday’s Saratoga picks – July 4

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

Bob Baffert watched the Metropolitan Handicap play out like everyone else at Saratoga Race Course Saturday and had some questions. “I hope he knows what he’s doing,” the trainer said to himself as jockey Flavien Prat let Nysos drop away from a four-horse scrum at the front of the Grade 1. “He’s either riding a … Read more

One year, an emotional win. The next year, a statement win. Deterministic delivered both in back-to-back renewals of the Grade 1 Manhattan Stakes in 2025 and 2026 at Saratoga Race Course – the first a day later than expected thanks to a weather-related rescheduling and the second in its proper place on Saturday’s Belmont Stakes … Read more

Daisy Phipps Pulito leaned over the wooden ledge of her clubhouse box and hugged Cherie DeVaux. An owner-and-trainer cocoon of an embrace amid the bedlam of celebration as Golden Tempo galloped out after winning the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Saturday evening. Bred and owned by the Phipps Stable and St Elias Stable and ridden by … Read more

How about that Golden Tempo? The Kentucky Derby winner dazzles again in the Belmont Stakes to highlight a massive day at Saratoga Race Course. Englishman, Nysos, Book’em Danno, Deterministic, Classic Q and Reef Runner also win major stakes. Plus an excerpt from Paul Halloran’s Cody’s Wish book, Here and There, columns from Joe and Sean … Read more

Tom Bellhouse bought Irad Ortiz Jr. a hot chocolate. Offered him a seat in the West Point Thoroughbreds’ golf cart. Nobody else was around. It was 5 o’clock in the morning at the Morning Line Kitchen. Bellhouse was waiting for Kiaran McLaughlin’s first set. Ortiz was waiting for his agent, waiting for a break. It … Read more