Saratoga Notebook

North America’s reigning champion male sprinter, Jackie’s Warrior, can join Saratoga Race Course legend Fourstardave as a six-time stakes winner at Saratoga Race Course with a victory in the $600,000 Forego Stakes (G1) Aug. 27.

The filly is a half sister to Florida champion Outfoxed.

Topping the pile Aug. 24 was the Night of Thunder filly out of Thiswaycadeaux from Tally-Ho Stud who brought £240,000 (US$283,049) after a six-figure tug of war between Richard Knight and Stuart Boman of Blandford Bloodstock.

Jockey Sonny Leon will be in Saratoga to ride Rich Strike in the Aug. 27 Travers (G1). He’ll fly out of Florida on Saturday morning and his agent, Jeff Perrin, just hopes he doesn’t have any flight delays.

Flightline holds a 32-vote lead over Life Is Good in the latest Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic Rankings, a weekly rating of the top 10 horses in contention for the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) at Keeneland Nov. 5.

The final days of the Saratoga Race Course meet will be a little less hectic for jockeys Irad Ortiz Jr. and Joel Rosario as three-racing-day careless riding suspensions for both riders were announced Aug. 24.

Sam Houston intends to run a shorter 43-day Thoroughbred meet when its season begins in January, Dwight Berube, the track’s general manager and vice president of operations, told the Texas Racing Commission during its monthly meeting Aug. 24. 

A classic Saratoga Springs downpour a day earlier wreaked havoc on the Aug. 24 card at Saratoga Race Course, forcing the cancellation of the day’s steeplechase stakes and the moving of five other turf races to the main track.

Co-owner Chester Thomas said he sees purses ready to boom in Louisiana from legalized sports betting and historical horse racing machines at the tracks.