SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Nysos, second in the $20 million Saudi Cup in February, will break from the rail and Journalism, the 2025 Preakness winner, will start from the outside in a seven-horse field entered Sunday for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Metropolitan Handicap, one of six stakes on the Belmont Stakes undercard at Saratoga.
The fields for 13 of the 14 races scheduled for Saturday were drawn on Sunday. The field for the Belmont Stakes was to be drawn Monday night at an event in downtown Saratoga Springs.
The one-length defeat to Forever Young in the Saudi Cup was one of just two defeats in a nine-race career for Nysos, who dead-heated for second with Banishing when both were beaten a neck by Mindframe in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes in 2025. Nysos was coming off a 15-month layoff that day.
Nysos, trained by Bob Baffert, is a six-time graded stakes winner, his lone Grade 1 victory coming in last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.
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Journalism, trained by Michael McCarthy, is a three-time Grade 1 winner, but has lost his last three starts. Journalism, second in last year’s Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, is coming off a third-place finish behind White Abarrio and Sovereignty in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap. Journalism is cutting back to a mile for the first time since he won his maiden at that distance as a 2-year-old at Del Mar in 2024.
In between Nysos and Journalism in post order, are Vibe, Antiquarian, Saudi Crown, Rated by Merit, and Knightsbridge.
Antiquarian won the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup here last year.
The legendary French trainer Andre Fabre has started one horse in Saratoga, that being Flintshire, who won the 2015 Sword Dancer. Fabre will have his second Saratoga runner on Saturday when he starts Bright Picture in the Grade 1, $1 million Manhattan Stakes at 1 3/16 miles on turf.
Bright Picture, a 5-year-old gelding by Intello, is 7 for 12 with four group stakes wins in Europe. Most recently, Bright Picture finished second to Arc de Triomphe winner Daryz in the Group 1 Prix Ganay at Longchamp in April. Daryz has come back to win the Group 1 Prix Aga Khan at Longchamp on May 21. Flavien Prat will ride Bright Picture from post 6.
Rhetorical and Make Me King, the one-two finishers in the Grade 1 Turf Classic at Churchill Downs, and Deterministic, last year’s Manhattan winner when the race was shortened to 1 1/8 miles, are among Bright Picture’s eight rivals in the Manhattan. Tiz Dashing, Test Score, One Stripe, Battle of Normandy and Integration are the others.
A couple of intriguing matchups exist in the graded dirt sprint stakes on the card.
In the Grade 2, $400,000 True North, at 6 1/2 furlongs, Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Bentornato takes on defending Eclipse Award-winning sprinter Book’em Danno in the 6 1/2-furlong race that drew a field of nine. Book’em Danno won the True North as well as two other graded stakes at Saratoga last year as part of his championship campaign.
Bentornato drew post 3 and will be ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., while Book’em Danno will start from post 6 under Paco Lopez. Imagination, the runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and winner of the Group 2 Riyadh Dirt Sprint in Saudi Arabia, is in this field, as are Acoustic Ave, Be You, Faust, Illuminare, Listenupshance and Pentathlon.
In the Grade 1, $500,000 Woody Stephens for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs, Crude Velocity and Englishman, the one-two finishers in the Grade 2 Pat Day Mile on Kentucky Derby day, meet again. Crude Velocity and Englishman will start side by side in posts 6 and 7, respectively, in the nine-horse field.
Crude Velocity defeated Englishman by 3 3/4 lengths, but the cutback to seven furlongs may bring the two lightly raced runners closer together.
The Woody Stephens drew Taj Mahal, the beaten favorite in the Preakness Stakes three weeks ago, as well as Obliteration, dominant winner of the Chick Lang Stakes at Laurel, Solitude Dude, a perfect 4 for 4 in one-turn races, Six Speed, the UAE Derby runner-up and 13th-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, Civil Liberty, Gilded Bandit, and Stradale.
California invader Ag Bullet will seek a repeat victory in the Grade 1, $500,000 Jaipur Stakes when the mare takes on nine males going 5 1/2 furlongs on turf. Ag Bullet, second in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, will be ridden by John Velazquez for trainer Richard Baltas.
Her main competition figures to be Reef Runner, who makes his first start since finishing fourth in the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint going six furlongs. Prior to that, Reef Runner won the 1351 Turf Sprint in Dubai.
The rest of the field includes Governor Sam, Bold Journey, Litigation, Works for Me, Clocker Tower, John the Beer Man, Twenty Six Black and My Boy Prince.
Trainer Chad Brown has won eight of the last nine runnings of the Grade 1, $500,000 Just a Game for females at one mile. Saturday, he’ll look for another with the duo of Segesta and Sandtrap.
Segesta ended her 4-year-old campaign with a Grade 1 victory in the Matriarch at Del Mar. She kicked off her 5-year-old season with a Grade 1 victory in the Jenny Wiley at Keeneland. Sandtrap, a Group 3 placed winner in Deauville in 2024, came off an 18-month layoff to win an allowance at Aqueduct in April.
Trainer Mark Casse sends out Classic Q, the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile winner, and And One More Time, winner of the Plenty of Grace at Aqueduct on April 17. Others entered in the Just a Game were Buttercream Babe, Deep Satin, Fast Market, and Mandanaba.
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