🌞 Summer is finally here as we are past the first official day June 21 with racing aficionados summer milestones of the Saratoga and Del Mar opening days rapidly closing in. The Spa kicks off in two weeks on Thursday July 13th with the 105th running of the Schuylerville (III) for two year old fillies as the feature event of the day. Eight days later on July 21st, Del Mar throws open its doors with its traditional day one stakes, the Oceanside for three year olds on the turf being the big race or races as it’s oft splint into divisions. Monmouth Park continues its meet with their signature Haskell Day card scheduled for Saturday July 22 with 6 stakes on the docket including the always important three year old feature. The other summer fixtures will soon be underway including the non-Churchill Downs Ellis Park meet starting up on July 7th. Also close to launching, though with an odd twist that may backfire, Colonial Downs initial meeting under the flag of CDI begins on July 14, deviating away from what seemed to be a successful Monday - Wednesday schedule to take on the strongest simulcasting signals of the year.
📰 We will be resuming our daily Saratoga blog on the days leading up to opening day while also expanding our podcast schedule, doing Twitter Spaces focusing on two year old races for the initial season of Game of Silks and some surprises that will be announced in the coming weeks.
😶🌫️ The Canadian wildfire smoke is back with Hawthorne, Horseshoe Indianapolis, Presque Isle, Thistledowns and Belterra all canceling their June 28 cards, and Finger Lakes issuing guidelines and allowing horsemen to scratch without penalty if they didn’t feel comfortable running with the Air Quality Index creeping into the concerning level. Let’s hope that this doesn’t continue be an issue throughout the summer months though the lack of optimism regarding the fires subsiding anytime soon seems grim.
🏳️ Au Revoir Two Phil’s. You were a likable sort who was as close to a throwback type as we get these days. It’s unfortunate timing as he just seemed to be reaching the peak of his powers and had found himself placed firmly among the leaders of the three year olds. However sesamoid injuries are very difficult to manage and it’s understandable why they chose to retire him at this point. That said the constant drumbeat of social media whining about “the breed” every time a prominent horse has a setback of any kind is both tiresome and fatuous and can the Secretariat fanatics settle down too? Larry was dealing with some PTSD and didn’t really mean to compare Two Phil’s to the Big Guy.
📋 Our (now annual) checklist of 25 Places to go and things to do in Saratoga will be out on July 18th. If you have a favorite place to eat or offbeat thing to do in the Saratoga/Capital District area, hit us up at Goingincirclespodcast@gmail.com as we are definitely going over 25 so wager accordingly.
🤔 So the Kelso Handicap (Gr II), a Fall fixture at Belmont since the mid-80’s, first as a turf race going a mile before being shifted to the dirt at the same distance in 2010, has been renamed the Forty Niner Stakes (Gr II). The Forbidden Apple(Gr III),(whose namesake won the Kelso Handicap twice) which was inaugurated in 2014 as a 1 mile turf stakes at Belmont (the grass stakes replacement for the Kelso moving to dirt) before being shifted north to Saratoga in 2019 has been renamed the Kelso Stakes. So opening weekend at the Spa when you see the Kelso, no they didn’t move the race back to the turf or to a different track, they just switched some names around. By the way Kelso happened to win Horse of the Year five times in a row. Here is a link to his page in the Hall of Fame. I also saw that the Curlin, a restricted stakes for non-stakes winning (at a distance under a mile) three year olds, has been moved up on the schedule to July 21, now held 8 days prior to the Jim Dandy (Gr II) which may play host to as many as five of the Going in Circles Digest top 10 three year olds depending on who reroutes to the Haskell
🇨🇦 Big day of racing Saturday at Woodbine with five stakes on the card, all of them of the graded variety. I’m not a huge fan of wagering on Tapeta and its stance on Ft Erie is ridiculous but Woodbine does offer a pretty good betting product, especially with field size for their stakes races. Oceanic is my only tout of the day in the Highlander Stakes (Gr II) for underrated trainer Jordan Blair and the traveling man jock (and Knicks fan) Rey Gutierrez.
🎉 Our guy Jason Beem (Track announcer at Tampa Bay and Colonial Downs) wrote an interesting piece on how compelling stories in racing are often missed with so little third party press and most tracks operating their marketing/PR dept’s with skeleton crews. Check it out here.
🐎 A lot of good stuff in this Chris McGrath interview of former Airdrie Stud Farm Manager Tim Thornton. Click here to check it out.
Saratoga area weather forecast for July according to the Farmers Almanac
Going in Circles Digest Top 10 three year olds (probable next start)
Forte (Jim Dandy?)
Mage (Jim Dandy?)
Arcangelo (Jim Dandy?)
Arabian Lion (Haskell or Amsterdam)
Geaux Rocket Ride (Haskell)
Disarm (Haskell or Jim Dandy?)
Arabian Knight (Haskell?)
Tapit Trice (Jim Dandy or Travers?)
Blazing Sevens (Jim Dandy)
Webslinger (Belmont Derby)
Great article, per usual!
When people are arrested for arson, its not a wildfire.