Todd Pletcher

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY -- Missing from action for two months, but certainly not forgotten, beaten GI Kentucky Derby favorite and 'TDN Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light) is ready to make his comeback. Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher said the Repole Stable homebred is set to resume competition in the GI Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park on July 20 with stablemates Mindframe (Constitution) and Tuscan Sky (Vino Rosso). Mindframe is making his first start since finishing second in the GI Belmont Stakes on June 8. Tuscan Sky won the...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.-With the mighty successful prelim--the GI Belmont Stakes--now part of Saratoga's storied history, it is time to move on to the main event. The 40-day racing season, the 156th since the first meet was staged in 1863, commences Thursday with an 11-race program at Saratoga Race Course, America's oldest sporting venue. The listed six-furlong $175,000 Schuylerville S., a graded stakes for 2-year-old fillies through last year, is the traditional opening-day feature. The first post is at 1:10 p.m. By the time the meet concludes on Labor Day, Sept....

Showcase (c, 2, Uncle Mo--Buy Sell Hold, by Violence) fired back-to-back bullets at Todd Pletcher's Saratoga base, including a four-furlong move in :48 3/5 (1/64) out of the gate over the Oklahoma training track June 21, and delivered as advertised as the 3-5 favorite to earn 'TDN Rising Star' honors on debut at the Big A Saturday. Drawn widest of all in post five, Showcase traveled nicely beneath Irad Ortiz, Jr. in an outside second, hit the front while racing in between rivals approaching the quarter pole and took off...

1st-BAQ, $90K, Msw, 2yo, f, 5 1/2f, 1:05 p.m. ET Hit the Bid Racing Stable and Morplay Racing's ITALIAN SOIREE (Uncle Mo), a $600,000 purchase following a :10 flat work at the OBS March sale, makes her racetrack debut for trainer John Terranova in this holiday card opener in New York. The filly, bred by Repole Stable, is a full-sister to stakes winner Be Better and out of a half-sister to graded winner Old Time Hockey (Smarty Jones). The Repole Stable colors will be carried by debuting Yellow (Bernardini), a...

Spendthrift Farm's Kingsbarns (Uncle Mo) earned an automatic berth in the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic with a dominant victory in the GI Stephen Foster Stakes at Churchill Downs Saturday. The 2-1 shot rated just off the pace as First Mission (Street Sense) and Skippylongstocking (Exaggerator) took the field through a moderate opening quarter in :24.13. First Mission, the 4-5 favorite, took charge as the half went up in :48.38, but Kingsbarns was rolling up three wide to grab control into the stretch. The favorite attempted to fight back, but...

1st-MTH, $47K, Msw, 3yo/up, f/m, 1 1/16mT, 12:50 p.m. ET. Shadwell Farm went to $700,000 at the 2022 Keeneland September Sale to take home EL ZAIN (Medaglia d'Oro). Sent to Todd Pletcher, the filly is out of GI Jenny Wiley Stakes heroine Centre Court (Smart Strike). This dam produced El Zain's full-sister, GSW Navratilova. Centre Court is also responsible for a yearling colt by Essential Quality and a filly by Flightline who was foaled Feb. 28. TJCIS PPS

The 15th annual jockeys-versus-horsemen charity basketball game, which benefits the programs of the New York Race Track Chaplaincy, this year in partnership with the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, will be played Aug. 1 at the Saratoga Springs Recreation Center beginnning at 7 p.m. The jockey team will once again be coached by Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero, Jr., with trainer Todd Pletcher and agent Kiaran McLaughlin coaching the horsemen team. Mitch Levites of the NYRA TV department will once again serve as the game's announcer. "This annual game is...

Approaching the start of the sixth week of the season at Delaware Park, a pair of apprentices--one a five-pound bugboy and the other still with his seven-pound allowance--are riding high atop the jockey standings. Through Saturday's racing, the Delaware win totals by Gabriel Maldonado (25) and Ederik Robles (18) matched the rookies' ages. Maldonado just finished a blast-off week that saw him winning nine races in a four-day span at three different tracks. On Wednesday, the five-pound apprentice tallied with the last of six afternoon mounts at Delaware, then traveled...

Champion 2-year-old colt and 'TDN Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light) worked a half-mile in :51 flat Friday for trainer Todd Pletcher over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga in preparation for a start in the GI NYRA Bets Haskell Stakes July 20 at Monmouth Park. Joining the GI Curlin Florida Derby winner on the work tab Friday was Repole Stable and St. Elias Stables recent GII Suburban Stakes winner Crupi (Curlin), who covered a half-mile in :52.85 in company with Talk of the Nation (Quality Road). "Both works were...

You have to root for the people who strive so hard to make a go of racing in Northern California after Golden Gate Fields shut its doors for good June 9. Racing has a rich history in Northern California and there are hundreds of people, from hotwalkers to grooms to trainers to breeders, and everybody in between, who depend on the sport to put food on the table. They deserve better than the uncertainty that has left most everyone worrying about their futures after The Stronach Group announced it was...

With two Grade I winners and two 'TDN Rising Stars' comprising half the GIII Salvator Mile S. field at Monmouth Park Saturday, it was Repole Stable and St. Elias Stables LLC's Bright Future (h, 5, Curlin--Sophia's Song, by Bellamy Road)--one of the former Grade I winners who was also coming off a seven-month layoff--who got the win after a tight trip on the rail. Fellow GISW Shirl's Speight (Speightstown), who has done his best running on the lawn but was third in this race in 2022, tired to sixth. The...

Tuscan Sky (Vino Rosso), who had finished a disappointing seventh as the 5-2 second choice in the GII Wood Memorial S. when last seen Apr. 6, restored his reputation by prevailing in a prolonged five-way battle for the lead and kicking well clear from a quintet of accomplished 3-year old rivals in the NYRA Bets Pegasus S. Running with the addition of blinkers for his fourth career start, the grey broke well under Javier Castellano and dueled for the lead through fractions of :23.35, :46.94 and 1:11.38. Turning for home,...