Belmont Derby Headlines a Star-Spangled Saratoga Opener

Fireworks at the Spa: Saratoga Throws Open Its Doors for a Grade 1 Fourth of July

Grab your straw hat and your tablecloth, because the summer game has arrived. This holiday weekend, Saratoga Race Course flings open the gates for its longest meet ever, and it is doing so in style, with the return of the July 4th Racing Festival running Friday, July 3 through Sunday, July 5. Even better, this year the festivities kick off an expanded 46-day, 10-week summer meet at the Spa. Add in the fact that Aqueduct just ran the final race in its 132-year history days ago, and this opening weekend feels like a genuine changing of the guard in New York racing.

The centerpiece lands on Independence Day itself, a Saturday card that starts early at 12:35 p.m. Eastern, so do not sleep on the first post. The jewel is the $750,000 Belmont Derby (G1), a mile and an eighth over the Saratoga lawn that has drawn an excellent field of 10 three-year-olds. The intrigue starts overseas: Godolphin's gray colt Pacific Avenue ships in for the brilliant Charlie Appleby, fresh off a third in the Irish 2000 Guineas at The Curragh, with William Buick in the irons for his first American start. The homegrown challenge is led by Remember Mamba, a late-running Cherie DeVaux runner who won the Transylvania at Keeneland and ran second in the American Turf at Churchill, with Jose Ortiz staying aboard after their Kentucky Derby heroics this spring. Watch, too, for Pennine Ridge winner West End Kid, who steps up for William Walden with Tyler Gaffalione, and for the Pennine Ridge runner-up Bottas out of Miguel Clement's barn.

The fillies get their turn in the $600,000 Belmont Oaks (G1), and like most of this weekend's stakes, it looks wide open. Britain's Abashiri, a Frankel filly for Appleby, is the early favorite while making her North American debut, but the buzz surrounds Fitz Right, unbeaten this year for the maestro Chad Brown, who owns a record five wins in this race. She rolled to her third straight in the Wonder Again at Saratoga under Flavien Prat with a career-best figure, and Brown thinks a mile and an eighth is right in her wheelhouse. With seven of the ten entrants having already won a stakes, this one promises a scramble to the wire.

The older dirt heavyweights collide in the historic $500,000 Suburban (G2) at a mile and a quarter, where Antiquarian looms large for Todd Pletcher, who was beaten a head in this race a year ago. He will have to handle Forged Steel, who annihilated the Hollywood Gold Cup field at Santa Anita by nine and a half lengths for Saffie Joseph Jr., the biggest margin in that race in over a decade. Tomorrow's stars sprint six furlongs in the $225,000 Sanford (G3), a first look at some seriously fast juveniles.

Friday eases you in with the $200,000 Schuylerville for blazing two-year-old fillies plus a pair of $150,000 turf tests, the Wild Applause and the Saranac. Then Sunday delivers a turf lover's paradise topped by the $150,000 Leo O'Brien (G1), a demanding two and three-eighths mile steeplechase over fences, alongside the $225,000 Kelso (G3) for older milers and the $200,000 Harvey Pack turf sprint.

Between the racing, the Spa is leaning hard into America's 250th with dollar Carnegie Deli hot dogs, Revolutionary-era music, pony rides, and a working replica 1777 cannon by the paddock. World-class horses, patriotic pageantry, and a fresh meet just getting started. There is nowhere better to be this Fourth of July.

So however you spend the holiday, whether trackside at the Spa with a program in hand or in your own backyard with the grill going, we hope it is a happy and safe one. Enjoy the fireworks, enjoy the racing, and here is to a summer of great Thoroughbred action just getting underway. Happy Fourth of July, and good luck out there.