Bring Theband Home returns to Saratoga as Harvey Pack favorite

Bring Theband Home returns to the Spa on a perfect 3-for-3 record over Saratoga’s turf course and distance, and that local ledger makes him the horse to beat in Sunday’s Listed $200,000 Harvey Pack. The 5 1/2-furlong Mellon sprint is Race 8 on the July 5, 2026, nine-race card, with first post at 1:10 p.m. Eastern, and it sits on an opening-weekend program that also features the Grade 1, $150,000 Leo O’Brien steeplechase in Race 1 and the Grade 3, $225,000 Kelso in Race 6.

Mark Casse has made Saratoga one of the most productive summer stops in his barn, and Bring Theband Home has emerged as one of the stable’s sharpest local speed horses. The Live Oak Plantation homebred, a Florida-bred gelding by Into Mischief out of Tizatude by Street Cry, owns career earnings of $518,556 from 15 starts, with six wins, three seconds and one third. Javier Castellano is slated to ride a horse whose best work has repeatedly come when the Spa turns to the shortest turf trip.

The numbers behind his 2025 Harvey Pack win explain why he will be such a short price again. Bring Theband Home blasted through opening fractions of 21.51 and 43.52, stopped the clock in 59.90 seconds and won by 4 1/4 lengths, good for a 109 Beyer Speed Figure. That time came within a tenth of the then-track and North American record of 59.80 set by Cogburn in the 2024 Jaipur, and it was followed by a Grade 2 Troy victory at Saratoga in 1:00.38, with a 105 Beyer to back it up. On his best day, he has already run the kind of race that sets the standard for the division.

The question is whether that top gear is still there after a rougher end to 2025. Following the Harvey Pack and Troy, he tailed off in two five-furlong starts, including troubled runs at Woodbine and in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar. Casse freshened him for Saratoga and sent him back to the worktab with purpose, including a bullet half-mile in 47.68 on June 19 and a three-eighths gate work in 37 flat on June 25. That pattern says the barn believes the engine is still there, even if the form cycle asks for proof.

Harvey Pack the race also carries the name of one of New York racing’s most recognizable voices, a broadcasting pioneer whose profile helped give NYRA programming its identity. That history fits the moment: Saratoga’s summer meet is back, the opening weekend card is loaded, and Bring Theband Home will try to show that the safest horse on the card is also the one with the fewest hidden cracks.