Seize the Grey

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - For trainer Danny Gargan, having Dornoch (Good Magic) land in Post 6 for the GI Belmont S. was a Monday win that just might lead to a major victory on Saturday. Five weeks after finishing a never-threatening 10th from the dreaded post position on the rail in the GI Kentucky Derby--a spot in the gate that has not produced a winner since 1986--Dornoch will leave from what Gargan figures will be a more promising location in the field of 10 at Saratoga Race Course. "I like...

One thing Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas was not going to do was fret over the post position assigned to Seize the Grey (Arrogate) for Saturday's GI Belmont S. at Saratoga Race Course. Seize the Grey got the rail for the 1 1/4-mile Belmont. It's a post most dread, but Lukas, who has won 15 Triple Crown races--including four Belmonts--isn't going to lose any sleep over it. "You have no control over it," Lukas said, sitting a few feet away from Seize the Grey's stall at his barn...

The GI Kentucky Derby winner is here. So is the champ of the GI Preakness S. Neither of them--Mystik Dan (Goldencents) or Seize the Grey (Arrogate)--were installed as the morning-line favorite for the 156th running of the $2 million GI Belmont S. which will be run at Saratoga Race Course on Saturday. Post time is scheduled for 6:41 p.m. That honor went to Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) at the draw, which was held Monday evening at Universal Preservation Hall in downtown Saratoga Springs. Sierra Leone was made the 9-5 morning-line...

At 6:30 Sunday morning, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas was spotted along the horse trail outside of the Oklahoma Training Track in Saratoga Springs. He was aboard his pony, Bucky and his prized 3-year-old Seize the Grey (Arrogate) was right next to him. The GI Preakness S. winner is in town and getting ready for the GI Belmont S. Seize the Grey arrived in the Spa City early Saturday evening around 7 p.m. after a 15-hour van ride from Louisville. The trip didn't bother Seize the Grey one...

It was back to work for GI Preakness S. winner Seize the Grey (Arrogate) on Wednesday at Churchill Downs as he prepares for the GI Belmont S. at Saratoga Race Course June 8. With regular jockey Jaime Torres on board, Seize the Grey had his first workout since his upset win the Preakness. He went six furlongs in 1:13 (1/1). "I asked [Torres] if he was responsive, and he said, 'very,'" Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas said by phone from Louisville. "He said he could have let him...

It was 9 p.m., several hours after the GI Preakness S. last Saturday, when Maryland Jockey Club (MJC) outrider Kaymarie Kreidel was basking in the glow of having escorted Seize the Grey (Arrogate) to the winner's circle after his triumph in the second jewel of the Triple Crown. Kreidel, 52, has worked as an outrider since retiring from being a jockey in 2006. She first started part-time in that job during morning training at Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park, then about nine years ago landed the full-time outriding gig...

Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas said GI Preakness S. winner Seize the Grey (Arrogate) will ship to Saratoga on Saturday, June 1 to prepare for the GI Belmont S. on June 8. "He came out of the Preakness remarkably well," Lukas said by phone from his base in Louisville, Ky. "Of all my [15 Triple Crown race winners], he might have come out of his race the best of any of them. He is doing damn good." Lukas said Seize the Grey will be the only horse from...

The much-missed Arrogate continues to add 'Saturday afternoon horses' to his tally with his final crop. Seize the Grey captured Saturday's GI Preakness S., giving Arrogate a second Classic winner in just three crops.  A Kentucky Oaks winner in his first crop. A Belmont and Travers winner in his second. A Preakness winner in his third. Three additional Grade I winners, two of them at age two. Like a streaking star, Arrogate's racing career blazed brilliantly--leaving all who witnessed it in awe--and now his all-too-brief stud career is doing the...

As the founder and CEO of MyRacehorse.com, Michael Behrens dreamt about days like this, winning a race at the highest level. So when Seize the Grey (Arrogate) crossed the wire first in the GI Preakness S., Behrens felt like he was living a dream. But so did the 2,570 individuals who invested in Seize the Grey, buying micro shares in the 3-year-old colt. And no doubt, so did the 88-year-old Hall of Fame trainer Wayne Lukas, who keeps making the statement that age truly is nothing more than a number....

The freakish vitality and durability of his trainer stands in poignant contrast to the posthumous legacies entwined by the success of Seize the Grey in the GI Preakness S. Most obviously, as colleague Jill Williams highlights in her Saturday Sires series, the industry has been given fresh cause to lament the premature loss of Arrogate. For the family and friends of Seize the Grey's breeder, however, Saturday was a more intensely personal cue to honor the memory of Audrey "Tolie" Otto, barely a year after her passing. Otto's stable, Jamm...

Michael Behrens, the founder and CEO of MyRacehorse, joins this week's TDN Writers' Room to celebrate Seize the Grey's victory in the GI Preakness.

There's not a trainer in the country who would have won the GI Preakness S. with Seize the Grey (Arrogate) other than Wayne Lukas because no one would have run him in this race except for Wayne Lukas. Horses need six, seven weeks between races. Good horses can't run more than four or five times a year, no one should ever mess with their winning percentage and run a 25-1 shot and don't dare use a jockey with no prior experience in the Triple Crown. Apparently, Lukas never got that...