Jon Stettin’s Blog
The Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks
It is Alabama Day at Saratoga, but you’d be hard pressed to argue the racing at Del Mar this year has not been better than the Spa and I decided to go west where the turf meets the surf. The Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks drew a competitive field of 10 fillies with two that appear to have quite bright futures. I’ll run down the field and see where we land. And Tell Me Nolies
The Fourstardave
The one-mile Fourstardave a Grade 1 named for a perennial Saratoga Horse for Course will be run Saturday. The race drew a field of 7, and as of now it is still scheduled to stay on the grass. It’s Saratoga so that is always subject to change. Let’s look at the field and see what shakes out. Emmanuel the first of two from Todd Pletcher starts from the rail. The versatile colt handles both turf
The Whitney Stakes
The Whitney is always one of the better races of the year and gets a lot of attention. Although it is not typically a prep for The Travers like The Jim Dandy I do remember when Alydar won it after his Triple Crown campaign against Affirmed before taking him on again in The Travers. Alydar won The Whitney with a huge move as a three-year old. I wish we saw more of them try it.
The Jim Dandy, Saturday at The Spa
A field of 5 three-year olds are set to go to post for the traditional Travers prep, a big race on its own, The Jim Dandy on Saturday. Two of the 5. Come out of The Belmont Stakes. 3 of the 5 are trained by Brad Cox who is going into war like mode surrounding the enemy. Todd Pletcher and Steve Asmussen have the other 2 runners. The Belmont was a race that saw a
The 2023 Haskell Stakes
The Haskell is a cool million-dollar Grade 1 that drew a sharp field of eight three-year olds. It is disrespectful to call it a prep for The Travers but it has somewhat evolved into that while still maintaining a fair share of prestige. This year we have the Kentucky Derby winner and some other fine three-year olds lining up to go a mile and an eighth and tell us who is emerging as the leader