Sword Dancer

TDN's Senior Racing Editor Steve Sherack handicaps Saturday's five Grade I races at Saratoga, headed by the 155th renewal of the Travers. GI Sword Dancer (Race 9) - Can't envision a scenario where the Sword Dancer doesn't go through either of the Godolphin/Charlie Appleby runners Measured Time (GB) (#2) or Silver Knott (GB) (#4), who both enter off impressive graded wins over the Saratoga lawn. Silver Knott is already proven at this 1 1/2-mile trip and has never been in better form, and we still may not have seen the...

A half-dozen years ago, Charlie Appleby mapped out a plan to send that year's G1 Dubai Sheema Classic winner Hawkbill (Kitten's Joy) to Hong Kong in an attempt to become the first overseas winner of the G1 Standard Chartered Champions and Chater Cup. Those plans were ultimately scuppered, owing perhaps in some part to a down-the-field finish by a then-unexposed Blue Point (Ire) (Shamardal) in the G1 Chairman's Sprint Prize the month prior. In the form of Rebel's Romance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), Appleby surmised that he had the 'right horse'...

A return to the state of New York proved just the right tonic for Bolshoi Ballet (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who snapped a nine-race skid in winning Saturday's 'Win and You're In' GI Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer S., getting his picture taken for the first time since the 2021 GI Belmont Derby some 25 months ago.  Soldier Rising (GB) (Frankel {GB}) rallied belatedly for second ahead of longshot Pioneering Spirit (American Pharoah) in third. It was more or less a straight line out of the gates before Channel Maker (English...

It's a bit of Christmas in August Saturday at venerable Saratoga Race Course, which plays host to no fewer than five Grade I events for horses of all ages--on dirt and on turf--topped by the main event on the summer calendar, the $1.25-million GI Travers S. While the fields are short on numbers, they are long on quality, as three of the races have attracted reigning Eclipse Award winners, none of whom are anything close to a cinch in their respective heats. Champion and 'TDN Rising Star' Forte (Violence) has...

Ballydoyle's Broome (Ire) (Australia {GB}), whose most recent trip across the Atlantic resulted in a strong runner-up effort behind Yibir (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) in last year's GI Breeders' Cup Turf, faces nine others--including defending champion Gufo (Declaration of War)--in Saturday's GI Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer Invitational S. at Saratoga. The 12-furlong event earns the winner a fees-paid berth into this year's Turf at Keeneland Nov. 5. The 6-year-old entire comes into the Sword Dancer a relatively fresh animal, as he will be making just his fourth start of the...

War Like Goddess, the $30,000 OBS June buy turned star turf marathoner, defended her title in Saratoga's GII Glens Falls S. with characteristic ease Saturday at the Spa, requiring little urging from Joel Rosario to pick up her eighth victory in 10 starts and sixth graded score in her last seven outings. Opening her career with a pair of triumphs going long on the Churchill turf in the fall of 2020, the Bill Mott trainee ran fifth making her stakes bow in the GIII The Very One S. last February...

The first two across the line in a thrilling renewal of this summer's GI Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer S. will face off once more in a seven-horse renewal of the GI Joe Hirsch Turf Classic S. over 1 1/2 miles on the Belmont turf Saturday. Otter Bend Stables' Gufo (Declaration of War) has yet to be out of the trifecta in 12 career outings and picked up stakes scores in the GI Belmont Derby Invitational S., GIII Kent S. and English Channel S. last year as a sophomore to...

Seemingly written off last time out as a declining 8-year-old gelding, Channel Maker (English Channel) caught everyone napping with a dominant wire-to-wire score in the GI Sword Dancer S. over soft turf. Saturday, the chestnut will return to the scene of his previous two Grade I triumphs in the GI Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational S. at Belmont. Capturing the 2018 Turf Classic in similar fashion--wire to wire over soft turf--Channel Maker was out of the trifecta in his next three tries, but rebounded with a determined victory in the...