This week at Golden Gate Fields, Aug. 25-28
Barrel Knot and Slycy are two 9-year-old turf and synthetic sprinters who meet for the first time in their long careers in Friday’s fourth race.
The 5-furlong starter allowance event on the grass will be the 83rd start for Barrel Knot, who has 13 wins, and the 47th for Slycy, who has 14 wins.
Nominations for the Rolling Green Stakes — the only stakes event of the five-week summer season — close Friday.
Likely nominees for the 11/16-mile grass race on Labor Day are horses from the Joseph T. Grace Handicap at the Sonoma County Fair won by Southern Freedom.
Exaggerator, who won the Santa Anita Derby, Preakness and Haskell Invitational on wet tracks, will see how he fares on a dry track when he heads a full field of 14 3-year-olds in the Travers Stakes.
Saturday’s rich program at Saratoga also offers five other Grade 1 stakes: the $1 million Sword Dancer, the $700,000 Forego, the $600,000 Personal Ensign, the $500,000 King’s Bishop and the $500,000 Ballerina.