The Challenge: Busy Win & You're In Day Upcoming at Spa

While the Travers Stakes (G1) will put plenty of focus on the ever-popular 3-year-old male division Aug. 29 at Saratoga Race Course where dual classic winner Golden Tempo🔥  looks to add more luster to his season, the 14-race card also features three Breeders' Cup Challenge Series races.

In terms of telling the Breeders' Cup story, the Challenge series is especially effective on days such as these, as more casual fans can see that the Personal Ensign Stakes (G1) (Race 9, 3:55 p.m. ET post) rewards a "Win and You're In" spot in the Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1), the Forego Stakes (G1) (Race 11, 5:11 p.m. post) is tied to the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1), and the Ballerina Stakes (G1) (Race 12, 5:49 p.m. post) provides a path to the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1).

FOX will provide coverage of the Saratoga card from 5-7 p.m. (expected to be races 11-13 [the Travers]), while FOX Sports will present the rest of the day's races on its FS1 and FS2 channels.

Here is some recent history for these three races.

Personal Ensign

Since 2017, three Personal Ensign winners have gone on to win the Distaff in the same season in Idiomatic , who pulled off the sweep in 2023, one year after Malathaat🔥  did the same in 2022. Forever Unbridled  won both races in 2017.

Thorpedo Anna  won last year's Personal Ensign after taking the 2024 Distaff. She was retired from racing before getting a chance to defend her Distaff title.

Favored (6-5 morning line) in this year's Personal Ensign is Fully Subscribed , who enters off a victory in the Shuvee Stakes (G2). She will look for her first grade 1 win after a couple of placings at that level this year.

Forego

In 2022, Cody's Wish🔥   rallied from sixth for a clear victory in the Forego and 10 weeks later rallied from ninth to edge Cyberknife   by a head to win the Dirt Mile.

Cody's Wish repeated in the Dirt Mile in 2023, a victory that would help lift him to Horse of the Year. He did not race in the Forego that season as he finished third in the Whitney Stakes (G1) and bounced back with a victory in the Vosburgh Stakes (G2) Oct. 1 at Aqueduct Racetrack ahead of his repeat Breeders' Cup win—joining Goldencents   as a two-time winner of that race.

The even-money Forego favorite is Book'em Danno , who closed out his 2025 season with a victory in this race.

Ballerina

That 2022 season proved big for the Saratoga races relative to Breeders' Cup success as Goodnight Olive  won the Ballerina and followed with a victory in the Filly and Mare Sprint. Then for good measure, she won the Filly and Mare Sprint again in 2023—joining Groupie Doll (2012-13) as the only runners to win the race two years in a row. 

In 2023, Goodnight Olive finished second to Echo Zulu in the Ballerina, which was her final prep for her Filly and Mare Sprint win 10 weeks later.

Klaravich Stables' Ways and Means🔥  is the 9-5 favorite in the Ballerina, which is contested at 7 furlongs, the same route at which she won the 2024 Test Stakes (G1) on this track.