GI Saratoga Derby

With heavy rain associated with Tropical Storm Debby forecast to impact Saratoga Springs on Friday and Saturday, the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) will add the GI FanDuel Fourstardave Handicap and GI Saratoga Derby Invitational as contingency races for Sunday, Aug. 11, the track said in a Wednesday press release. Should weather force races off the turf on Saturday, Aug. 10, then NYRA will aim to run the Fourstardave and Saratoga Derby as the final two races on Sunday, Aug. 11. To allow for increased flexibility, those races will...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--After the impressive win in the GII Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga Race Course last weekend, the chances of the winner, Fierceness (City of Light) showing up in the $1.25, GI Travers Stakes were--take your pick--slim and none. Much has changed in the last few days and now Fierceness may very well be on his way to a date with the likes of Dornoch (Good Magic), Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) and the filly, Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna). "That is what we are thinking about," Hall of Fame trainer...

Cody's Wish (Curlin) will be heavily favored over five rivals to add another chapter to racing's feel-good story in Saturday's GI Whitney S. at Saratoga. The Godolphin homebred, winner of last term's GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and the stallion-making GI Hill 'N' Dale Metropolitan H. at Belmont Park June 10, seeks his first career win beyond one mile in the nine-furlong Whitney, a 'Win and You're In' for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita. The 1-2 morning-line favorite, named after Cody Dorman, who was born with the...

Trainer Todd Pletcher has confirmed Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable's MGISW Forte (Violence) for the GII Jim Dandy S. July 29 at Saratoga Race Course. The 3-year-old colt will use the race as a prep for the GI Travers S. Aug. 26, which the Hall of Famer won with Flower Alley [2005] and Stay Thirsty [2011]. "It was a tough call," said Pletcher. "We just felt like shipping up here, getting him used to the track, two Travers winners we previously had have done that." Pletcher added that Forte...