Melanie Giddings

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.-Just the mere fact that a $3,500 yearling has won two races of any kind at Saratoga this summer, puts The Queens M G (Thousand Words) in a "that's impressive" category. In the GI Spinaway Stakes Saturday, she will try to add to her reputation by completing the rare sweep of the track's three stakes for 2-year-old fillies. The Queens M G scored in the 5 1/2-furlong Schuylerville Stakes, long the opening day feature, by 2 3/4 lengths at 44-1 July 11. She crushed the six-furlong GIII Adirondack...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, who has won the GI Travers Stakes three times, could be going for No. 4 in this year's Midsummer Derby Baffert, speaking from his summer base at Del Mar in California, said that one of his 3-year-olds--Parenting (Justify) or Muth (Good Magic) who were both tabbed as 'TDN Rising Stars'--could represent him in the $1.25 million race at Saratoga Race Course Aug. 24. "Potentially," he said. Parenting, owned by Wathnan Racing, was a $750,000 purchase at the 2023 Ocala 2-year-olds in training...

The anniversary is right around the corner, a gruesome tragedy that nobody who was at Saratoga that day will ever forget. It was among the darkest days in the long history of racing upstate. But nobody had it worse than trainer Melanie Giddings, who, in a fraction of second, saw Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic) go from the sure winner of the GI Test Stakes to a horse who broke down inches before the wire and could not be saved. Her business is doing fine. She has 42 horses and...

The late Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic), who won last year's GIII Victory Ride S. and GIII Miss Preakness S. before tragically falling en route to victory in the GI Test S., was named New York-bred Horse of the Year along with champion 3-year-old filly and champion female sprinter honors during the New York Thoroughbred Breeders Inc.'s Annual Awards Ceremony Monday night. Bred by Joe Fafone and campaigned by Bill Parcells' August Dawn Farm, Maple Leaf Mel was trained by Melanie Giddings--for whom she was named--and Jeremiah Englehart. The complete...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Owning a very similar name and the same color, sire, owner and trainer, Mel's Baby Sister (Cross Traffic) was moved Wednesday into the stall occupied by the late Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic). Despite the names given to them by owner Bill Parcells, the NFL Hall of Fame coach, to honor trainer Melanie Giddings, Maple Leaf Mel and Mel's Baby Sister are not related. Maple Leaf Mel was on her way to victory in the GI Test S. Saturday when she suffered a catastrophic leg injury...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY -- Trainer Jena Antonucci could have easily stepped aside Sunday morning and passed on a question about Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic)'s catastrophic injury in Saturday's GI Test S. That's not how she handled it. After commenting on how pleased she was with the way her GI Belmont S. winner Arcangelo (Arrogate) worked five furlongs in 1:00.21 Sunday morning, Antonucci turned to how trainer Melanie Giddings has to deal with the loss of her star filly. "I get chills," Antonucci said, then paused to compose herself. "Any...

Melanie Giddings had originally planned on a no-stress summer when she decided to move her fledgling stable from its home base at Palm Meadows up to New York for the Saratoga meet. "I had said, 'Why don't we just go up to Saratoga and enjoy ourselves?'" Giddings recalled with her signature easy smile. "No pressure, no nothing. Just take the horses there and see what we can do." Those expectations went out the window pretty quickly when a filly named Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic) landed in her barn. The...

Todd Pletcher stablemates Charge It (Tapit) and Far Bridge (English Channel), each victorious in stakes company on the July 8 program at Belmont Park, returned to the worktab for the first time since those efforts. Whisper Hill Farm's 'TDN Rising Star' Charge It, who returned to winning ways with a dominating victory in the GII Suburban S. at a mile and quarter, went a half-mile in :49 flat over the Saratoga main track and is on track for a start in the GI Whitney S. Aug. 5. "He worked really...

Billed as a showdown between unbeaten sophomore fillies Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic) and Dazzling Blue (Into Mischief), with the added bonus of Red Carpet Ready (Oscar Performance), who took down previously unbeaten Munnys Gold (Munnings) in Churchill's GII Eight Belles S. May 5, Belmont's GIII Victory Ride S. didn't disappoint as Maple Leaf Mel turned back a stiff challenge from Dazzling Blue and stayed unbeaten in five starts. Interpolate (Into Mischief) bobbled out of the gate, but Maple Leaf Mel broke straight and true. The gray found her customary...