In The Money Telegraph
Thursday, July 23, 2026 · By ITM Staff
There’s a contest to play every single day between now and Saturday, our Friday feeder is taking on both coasts, and two Grade 1s await at the weekend. Here’s your week.
The Contest Calendar Is Stacked
On this week’s And the Tournament Winner Was, John Gaspar welcomes Pete Acocella — a 14-time NHC qualifier who finished second in the Haskell Challenge, the contest we spent all of last week pointing you toward. Good to see it pay off for someone in the ITM orbit.
The show is presented by NYRA Bets Contests, and their Saratoga slate is busy from today right through the weekend:
Today. A $40 game on-track only (cash plus a Low Rollers t-shirt), and a $40 online game awarding seats into Friday’s $300 contest.
Friday. A $40 feeder into Saturday’s seeded contest, plus a $300 cash game.
Saturday. The big one — a $300 game with a $2,500 seeded pool, plus an $80 feeder awarding seats to the $1,000 Jim Dandy Challenge.
Sunday. Another $40 on-track game, another $80 Jim Dandy feeder, and a $300 cash game — with the Jim Dandy Challenge itself landing Saturday, Aug. 1.
Listen to Episode 44 → | See the NYRA Bets contests →
Tomorrow: The Tour Splits the Coasts
Friday’s In the Money HorsePlayers Tour feeder takes the best of both meets — Saratoga’s Races 7 through 10 alongside Del Mar’s Races 3 through 8, ten races in all. Twenty dollars gets you in, and there are two roads out: finish in the top 10% and you advance to Saturday’s BCBC Qualifier and a shot at a $10,000 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge seat, or finish in the top four and you’re into the ITM Tour Playoffs, where another $10,000 seat is awarded at no cost to players.
The house cut goes to Breeders’ Cup Charities, which supports the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, the Racetrack Chaplaincy of America, and the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation. And with seven Fridays run, 28 of the 68 Playoff spots are claimed — forty still to go.
PTF and Matt Bernier go through four of the contest races, including the Grade 2 Shuvee and the Rick Violette Stakes for 3-year-old New York-breds, and finish with the mile-and-a-half inner-turf maiden — the kind of race, as they put it, where you go fishing for a price.
Enter Friday’s ITM Tour feeder →
The Weekend Ahead: Two Grade 1s
At the Spa. Saturday’s Coaching Club American Oaks is the decider between Kentucky Oaks winner Always A Runner and Acorn winner Counting Stars, who are level at a win apiece. PTF has the horse-by-horse guide for Sky Sports Racing and is taking a swing against both, siding with La Rascasse each-way at approximately 5:45 p.m. ET. Read the guide →
By the sea. Del Mar answers with the Grade 1 Bing Crosby, a “Win and You’re In” to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and a genuinely open renewal. Ryan Anderson and Jackson Muniz have the whole late Pick 5 sequence built around it on The Gallop Out. Watch →
Around the Sport
History, confirmed. Now that the dust has settled on the Haskell: Lindsay Schultz is the first female trainer to win the race in its 59 runnings. Baby Vino’s $58 return was the biggest Haskell upset price since Skip Trial paid $73 in 1985, and a crowd of 35,608 was there to see it. Schultz credited Kathleen O’Connell and Linda Rice for clearing the path, and tipped her cap to Cherie DeVaux’s Derby earlier this year. Where next? Connections are weighing the Travers against the Pennsylvania Derby.
The Whitney keeps building. Nitrogen breezed a half in :47.60 Sunday and remains pointed at the boys on Aug. 8, where she’ll try to become the first female winner of the Whitney since Personal Ensign in 1988 — and she’ll do it with a new rider, as John Velazquez takes over from Jose Ortiz. Sovereignty and Nysos are also being pointed that way, which is shaping the race up as one of the meet’s biggest. Meanwhile Golden Tempo skips the Aug. 1 Jim Dandy with a minor illness and will train up to the Travers from Keeneland.
ITM Plus
Your Daily Edge at Saratoga and Del Mar
Nick Tammaro brings his Saratoga notebook to ITM Plus every day of the meet, and Adam Dempo joins with full-card Del Mar analysis — detailed written selections, a play of the day, and exclusive podcasts right through to the Breeders’ Cup.
More all week at inthemoneypodcast.com, with daily previews on the ITM YouTube channel and premium tips on ITM Plus.
