ITM Telegraph — Saratoga Opens Tomorrow + Where to Play | Thursday, July 2, 2026

In The Money Telegraph

Thursday, July 2, 2026 · By ITM Staff

The wait is nearly over — the best six weeks in racing start tomorrow. Here’s your sweep of what’s ahead and where to play.

Saratoga Opens Tomorrow

Saratoga Race Course throws open its gates Friday, July 3, for a 46-day summer meet that runs through Labor Day, September 7 — 73 stakes worth more than $23.5 million, including 20 Grade 1s, with the Whitney (Aug. 8) and the 157th Travers (Aug. 29) still to come.

It opens in full celebration mode with the July 4th Racing Festival — a three-day Opening Weekend, July 3 through 5, wrapped in America’s 250th-anniversary festivities. Friday’s 11-race opener is headlined by the $200,000 Schuylerville for 2-year-old fillies, where Jena Antonucci’s $40,000 bargain buy Luminous Beauty tries to follow up a sharp Spa maiden win under Flavien Prat, alongside the Wild Applause and Saranac on the turf. Saturday brings the heavy artillery: the GI Belmont Derby, GI Belmont Oaks, and GII Suburban.

And if you’ll be playing Saturday’s turf marquee, PTF has the Belmont Oaks covered for Sky Sports Racing — a full horse-by-horse guide to the transatlantic field, from Godolphin’s Frankel filly Abashiri and Donnacha O’Brien’s Kensington Lane to the domestic hopes led by Chad Brown and Brendan Walsh. His Belmont Derby guide follows shortly. Read PTF’s guide at At The Races →

And a fitting note to close the weekend: Sunday’s card carries the Harvey Pack Stakes, named for the late NYRA broadcasting legend we saluted on Monday. The full Opening Weekend rundown →

Around the Sport

A big win for Monmouth. Good news for the sport out of New Jersey: Monmouth Park will keep its full $10 million annual purse subsidy in 2027 after Governor Mikie Sherrill signed the state budget this week. An earlier proposal had floated halving it to $5 million — a shortfall that could have forced the meet down to as few as 25 days — so locking in the full amount clears away the uncertainty and keeps a track we cover all summer on solid footing. The story at BloodHorse →

A new road to the NHC. The “Race to the NHC” returns for a third year, launching July 4 — a series of 25 free weekly contests for subscribers of Equibase’s Race Lens, hosted on HorsePlayers.com, that ultimately sends two players to the 2027 National Horseplayers Championship in Las Vegas. Details at the NTRA →

Know the rhythm. A scheduling note for planning your summer: for the first stretch of the meet, Saratoga runs Thursday through Sunday and is dark not only Mondays and Tuesdays but Wednesdays too, until the full five-day week resumes July 29.

Play the Opener: Friday’s HorsePlayers Contest

Want a piece of the action on opening day? The In the Money HorsePlayers Tour’s all-Saratoga run kicks off with Friday’s feeder — a $20 Pick & Pray on HorsePlayers.com played over Saratoga races 4 through 11. Lock in a single Win/Place horse in each of the eight contest races before the first goes off; scoring is $2 Win/Place, capped 20-1 to win and 10-1 to place, up to three entries per account.

The top four finishers punch tickets to the ITM Tour Playoffs, and one entry per 10 earns a paid seat into Saturday’s July 4 BCBC Qualifier — with every dollar of proceeds benefiting Breeders’ Cup Charities.

Before you set your card, PTF sat down with FanDuel Racing alum Matt Bernier to go through Friday’s opening-day sequence race by race. ▶  Watch the preview →

Enter Friday’s feeder →

On ITM Today

Inside a champion’s tickets. On the latest And the Tournament Winner Was, John Gaspar sits down with Darren Schweiger, who put together a remarkable run — taking down both Monmouth’s $2,000 Pick Your Prize and the Stephen Foster Betting Challenge inside three weeks. It’s a clinic in live-money contest play: race selection, when to push, and why he’d rather win the whole thing in a single bet. ▶  Watch on YouTube →

Start Your NHC Journey: The LRF Cares Contest

Looking a bit further ahead, here’s one worth marking down. On Saturday, July 18, Little Red Feather Racing and its aftercare charity, LRF Cares, team up with the NHC and the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club for the LRF Cares Horseplayer Contest — a $250 Pick & Pray on HorsePlayers.com using all of Del Mar’s races. One 2027 National Horseplayers Championship seat is awarded for every 40 entries (two guaranteed), and every entry supports Thoroughbred aftercare.

Here’s the value angle: HorsePlayers.com is now running qualifiers into it — a great way to start your journey to the NHC for short money. We’re proud to help spread the word.

Find the contest and qualifiers on HorsePlayers.com →

More all week at inthemoneypodcast.com, with daily previews on the ITM YouTube channel and premium tips on ITM Plus.