By Jarrod Horak The closing week stakes races at Del Mar featured some excellent performances, but none were better than Tamara in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante on Saturday, Sept. 9. She won for fun and stamped herself as the early favorite for the BC Juvenile Fillies. That does it for my Del Mar [...]

The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club has now completed 7 weeks of their 8 week summer season with just three racing days left, i.e. this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. They had five days of racing this past week and it still amazes me how full the fields are this far into the meet. Many of the [...]

By Jarrod Horak This was the biggest week at Del Mar so far. The Grade 1 Pacific Classic was the marquee race and Arabian Knight smartly wired the field in that heat, and he gets my star of the week award. Eight other stakes races were run between Sept. 2-4, and the summer meet is [...]

By Jarrod Horak The curtain has come down on the 2023 summer meet at Saratoga. The final two Grade 1 races of the meet were for 2-year-olds, and neither had the result that many were expecting. Brightwork was hardly a big surprise in the Spinaway, but Nutella Fella’s victory in the Hopeful was completely expected [...]

By Jarrod Horak I did not have wagering success in the four stakes races at Saratoga on Saturday, Sept. 2, but I was pleased as a racing fan with one outcome in particular. The one performance that really stood out was Thin White Duke’s rallying win in the Harvey Pack Stakes. You cannot help but [...]

By Jarrod Horak This is my first of three stakes recaps for the final week of the 2023 Saratoga summer meet. Bill Mott won a pair of juvenile stakes to begin the week, and Chad Brown’s exciting sophomore turf star Carl Spackler (IRE) picked up his second graded stakes win of the summer in the [...]

By Jarrod Horak Week 6 at Del Mar was the calm before the stakes storm. We saw decent performances in the graded ranks from Anarchist and Eda, and now the stakes schedule kicks into high gear for the final two weeks of the summer meet. There are ten stakes on the docket from Sept. 2-4, [...]

By Jarrod Horak I enjoyed handicapping these New York-bred stakes races at Saratoga on Sunday, Aug. 27. I previewed the races for the Digest and ended up going 3-for-6 with a second. These six stakes races wrapped up the Travers week stakes action. There is one week and ten stakes races to go at the [...]

By Jarrod Horak Arcangelo moved to the head of the sophomore male division with a strong victory over Disarm in Saturday’s Grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. In this post, I will go through each of the Travers entrants and discuss their rides and trips. Tapit Trice was the most pleasant surprise, and [...]

By Jarrod Horak I am still in shock over what happened at Saratoga on Saturday. The sudden breakdown of Maple Leaf Mel right before the wire a few weeks ago was extremely painful to witness, and after covering the aftermath of that harrowing turn of events on this website, I was really hoping for smooth [...]

By Jarrod Horak The Travers week stakes schedule began with the John’s Call on Aug. 23, and Tawny Port was best for Joel Rosario and Christophe Clement. The Ballston Spa was run the next day and there was a huge upset, and we saw a pair of strong winning performances in the Smart N Fancy [...]

Week five is in the books for the summer season at Del Mar but it was no ordinary week where the “turf meets the surf”. For just the 2nd time in the 84 year history of this historic track they had to cancel a day of racing due to inclement weather. With Hurricane Hilary moving [...]

By Jarrod Horak Week six at Saratoga is in the books and Randomized turned in a star performance. Chad Brown’s filly hit the front early and never looked back in the Grade 1 Alabama for sophomore fillies traveling a mile and a quarter on the main track. Click here for Saratoga Racing Picks, Tips, and Insider [...]

By Jarrod Horak This week’s Del Mar stakes report is very short. Three stakes races were originally scheduled, but the Sunday card was cancelled and that program was supposed to feature the Solana Beach Stakes. No word yet on a new date for that race. Anisette was the big performer of the week after an [...]

By Jarrod Horak The Del Mar stakes star of the week was an easy choice. Exciting 2-year-old prospect Prince of Monaco ran a hole in the wind in the Best Pal Stakes on Sunday for trainer Bob Baffert. He might be the goods! Click here for Del Mar Racing Picks, Tips, and Insider Analysis Graduation – [...]

By Jarrod Horak We saw some impressive efforts in the stakes ranks at Saratoga for the week ending August 13. There were at least three performances worthy of blue-ribbon status, and I decided to go with Carl Spackler (IRE) as the star of the week. Chad Brown’s emerging stakes star made the grade in the [...]

The Grade 3 La Jolla Stakes for sophomores at a mile and a sixteenth on the turf was the headliner on Sunday as 8 went to the post. They made a maiden the 3/1 favorite in this race, maybe because the meet’s leading rider had the mount, and sure enough, with his only mount of [...]

By Jarrod Horak The third week of the Del Mar summer meet included five stakes races. Two were of the graded variety and three were restricted to California-bred horses, and the stakes star of the week award goes to Bus Buzz. The state bred sophomore sprinter put on a show in the Real Good Deal [...]

By Jarrod Horak We cannot begin this recap article without discussing the tragic events surrounding the Test Stakes, and that race is almost impossible to talk about given what happened just before the wire. The ending was almost too tragic to believe. Maple Leaf Mel, an extremely talented and fleet New York-bred filly, was in [...]

STAKES RECAP: BLOOD AND GUTS: They ran three graded stakes over the weekend and all three had strong fields with plenty of entries. It would be hard to top the Grade 1 Bing Crosby on Saturday as they had 12 strong sprinters go six furlongs on the main track and it was a Win and [...]

By Jarrod Horak The second week of the Del Mar summer meet featured five stakes races. Senor Buscador pulled off the biggest surprise at 13-1 odds in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap, and he will probably go next in the Pacific Classic (G1) on Saturday, September 2. Click here for Del Mar Racing Picks, Tips, [...]

By Jarrod Horak What a stellar week of stakes races at Saratoga. I don’t even know where to begin. Echo Zulu, Next, and New York Thunder were tremendous during the week, and Elite Power and Forte showed us why they are champions in a pair of determined victories over the weekend. It is almost impossible [...]

By Jarrod Horak The 2023 Del Mar summer meet is off and running. There were five stakes races on opening week and four of those were flat mile turf events. We saw some impressive performances including Anisette’s scene-stealing performance in the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes on Saturday, July 22. Click here for Del Mar Racing [...]

By Jarrod Horak Saratoga’s second week of the 2023 summer meet is in the books and seven stakes races were run from July 19-23. We witnessed big performances from Scotland in the Curlin and Wet Paint in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks, but the star of the week award goes to Nest after [...]

By Jarrod Horak Opening week at Saratoga featured unsettled weather and multiple upsets in the stakes races. There were seven stakes from July 13-16 and Whitebeam (GB) was the star of the week. Chad Brown’s filly nipped her highly regarded stablemate In Italian (GB) in the Grade 1 Diana. Click here for Saratoga Racing Picks, Tips, [...]