The Spa Spot: Morning Breeze
Today is the third day of the 2012 Saratoga racing season. The weather has been terrific and the competition has been intense through the first two days with only four favorites winning the first 21 races.
- A 10-race program is scheduled this afternoon. The first post is 1 p.m.
- The feature race is the 98th running of the Grade 2 Sanford Stakes. The Sanford, named for the famous racing family from Amsterdam, N.Y., is the first of three graded stakes for 2-year-olds males at Saratoga. Plenty of top horses have won the Sanford through the years, but the most famous loser was Man o' War, who absorbed the only loss of his legendary career to the appropriately named Upset in 1919. A full field of eight will go to the post.
- The 5-2 morning-line favorite in the Sanford is Rose Junction, owned by Starlight Racing. One of the principal owners in Starlight is Don Lucarelli of Duanesburg. Rose Junction was sired by the late Dixie Union, the sire of Belmont Stakes winner Union Rags.
- Jockeys Ramon Dominguez and Alan Garcia did ride at three different tracks Saturday, starting with Saratoga Race Course, but their ambitious schedule did not work out exactly as
planned.
- John Velazquez, who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer, told
Daily Racing Form that he will return from injury on Wednesday.