Class Dropping Sprinters Vie in Vosburgh, Gallant Bloom

Before turf runners take center stage Sept. 26 at Belmont Park in the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic (G1T) and Flower Bowl Stakes (G2T), main-track sprinters will have their opportunity in a pair of $250,000 graded stakes.

The Vosburgh Stakes (G3), a 7-furlong test for males, comes five races after female sprinters dash 6 1/2 furlongs in the Gallant Bloom Stakes (G2). 

Contention runs deep in the Vosburgh, which lures back four horses from the Aug. 29 Forego Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course. Three of them—Senior Officer , T Kraft , and Crazy Mason —finished within about a foot or two of one another behind Hymn , who does not return in the Vosburgh. Senior Officer and T Kraft finished on even terms in dead-heating for second, while Crazy Mason was a head back in fourth.

Also returning from the Forego is sixth-place Bring the Smoke , who was eased after racing close to the pace following a bobble at the start.

Qatar Racing's Senior Officer is the likely favorite after also being the public choice in the Forego. The Forego was his stakes debut following a series of promising efforts in maiden, allowance, and allowance optional claiming contests

The 5-year-old gelded son of Into Mischief   has been first or second in all seven of his starts. Flavien Prat, the Eclipse Award-winning rider the past two years, picks up the mount aboard the Brad Cox trainee.

Junior Alvarado and Manny Franco, respectively, return aboard LRE Racing's T Kraft and Donna Wright and Reeves Thoroughbred Racing's Crazy Mason. Both horses won stakes last year at Aqueduct Racetrack, with the Bill Mott-trained T Kraft taking the Jimmy Winkfield Stakes and the Gregg Sacco-trained Crazy Mason capturing the Carter Stakes (G2).

Other leading Vosburgh contenders include late-running California shipper Moonlight  and class-rising Contrary Thinking , who was beaten only a nose by Senior Officer in June at Saratoga.

As part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In, the Vosburgh victor earns a paid, automatic berth into the Oct. 31 Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) at Keeneland.

R Disaster Goes After a Second Straight Gallant Bloom

The Gallant Bloom does not offer automatic entry to its winner into the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1), but its 6 1/2-furlong distance and timing, five weeks before the Breeders' Cup, leave it positioned to still serve as a prep.

Like the Vosburgh, the race includes several class droppers from top-level company at Saratoga, with Beauty Reigns , Paradise City🔥 , and R Disaster  finishing 3-5-6, respectively, in the Aug. 29 Ballerina Stakes (G1).

Averill Racing and Anthony Mattera's R Disaster disappointed that afternoon, but chasing a fast pace compromised her finish. Her better races have come when she has outsprinted her rivals to the early lead.

She won the 2025 Gallant Bloom in that fashion, as well as the Hurricane Bertie Stakes (G3) and Derby City Distaff (G1) earlier this year. Jose Ortiz, aboard in last year's Gallant Bloom, rides the $1.3 million-earning 5-year-old daughter of Awesome Slew  .

Saffie Joseph Jr. trains R Disaster and also C Two Racing Stable, Shining Stables, Paul Braverman, Timothy Pinch, and BAG Racing Stables' Paradise City🔥 , a 4-year-old McKinzie   filly who will have Dylan Davis in the saddle.

Prat rides Don Alberto Stable's homebred Senza Parole , a fast allowance optional claiming winner Sept. 2 at Saratoga. The graded-placed 4-year-old Gun Runner   filly is seeking her first stakes victory with five-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown.