Saturday at 'the Spa': Saratoga Race Course picks for Whitney Day, including four Grade 1 stakes races
Whitney Day at Saratoga Race Course is set for Saturday, August 8, bringing one of the most anticipated cards of the summer meet. The day is headlined by the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes and includes three additional Grade 1 races: the Test Stakes, the Fourstardave Stakes, and the Saratoga Derby.
Trainer Brad Cox and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. headline the summer meet with the top winning percentages among trainers and jockeys meeting minimum start requirements. Together, they will send out #6 On Time Girl (7-2) in the Test Stakes. The filly has recorded two wins and a second in three starts at the distance and has gone off as the betting favorite in five of her last six races, including four straight. She is the only filly in the field with tactical speed, a quality that could serve her well regardless of pace scenario.
In the Fourstardave, #3 Zulu Kingdom (7-2) has been the post-time favorite in seven of his 11 career starts, with eight wins and one third-place finish overall. His record at Saratoga is strong: three wins and a third in five starts. At the distance, he has four wins and a third in seven attempts. Jockey Flavien Prat and trainer Chad Brown lead all riders and conditioners in earnings at the Saratoga meet this summer. Zulu Kingdom most recently posted a career-best 101 Beyer Speed Figure in a dead-heat win in the Grade 3 Kelso at Saratoga in July and brings experience from seven graded stakes, including six straight.
#6 Capitol Hill (10-1) is being used underneath in exactas as the only horse in the Fourstardave field with proven late speed, capable of closing into a piece of the purse on the stretch drive.
In the Saratoga Derby, #1 Glavine (12-1) has recorded Beyer Speed Figures of 86, 83, and 85 in his three starts this year, figures competitive with the top contenders. He broke his maiden in May and has since finished fourth and third, both at Saratoga. Despite going off at $4.17 or shorter in all three prior starts this year, he enters at 12-1 on the morning line. With the top three betting choices in the field all at 9-2 or shorter, Glavine offers significant value if he can take another step forward.
The Whitney Stakes features the highly accomplished #6 Sovereignty (3-1), winner of the 2025 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes. Sovereignty opened his 2025 campaign with a second and a third in his first two starts, modest results for a horse of his caliber. But his Saratoga record is dominant: three wins in four career starts at the track, including last year's Belmont Stakes and a 10-length victory in the Grade 1 Travers. That Travers win came over #1 Magnitude (9-5), the morning-line favorite in the Whitney, who finished 20.75 lengths behind him that day. Magnitude turned the tables in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs in May. Sovereignty has nonetheless posted Beyer Speed Figures of 104 or higher in six consecutive races and broke his maiden in his third start as a 2-year-old, won the Kentucky Derby in his third start as a 3-year-old, and reeled off three wins at Saratoga last summer, a pattern of peaking in his third start that has held throughout his career.