Jimmy P seeks rare Saratoga three-peat, Reef Runner eyes Breeders' Cup
Jimmy P is chasing a rare Saratoga three-peat on Sept. 2, while Reef Runner is being steered toward Keeneland and a Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint return.
Jimmy P has put Saratoga back at the center of his season, and the 8-year-old gelding now heads toward the Jonathan Sheppard Memorial on Sept. 2 with a chance to do something almost no horse has done at the Spa. He has won the last two runnings of the race, and another victory would make him the first three-time straight winner since Happy Intellectual completed the feat nearly 50 years ago, back when the event was known as the New York Turf Writers Steeplechase.
The Keri Brion barn already has Jimmy P moving in the right direction. He opened his 2026 account by taking the Grade 1 Beverly Steinman Hurdle at Saratoga on June 3, a timely rebound that sharpened his case for a return to the Sheppard and kept him in the hunt for one of the meet’s more unusual bits of history. NYRA’s summer stand features more than 70 stakes worth over $23 million, and Jimmy P’s path sits squarely inside that Saratoga centerpiece.
The next major betting marker on the calendar is the Ballerina on Aug. 29, where Grand Job is likely to face Ways and Means again after their tight June 5 finish in the Bed o’ Roses. Ways and Means got the better of Grand Job by a nose that day and repeated in the race for the second straight year, strengthening her hold on the sprint division and setting up a rematch that could shape the late-summer filly and mare picture. Grand Job, who races for Bell Tower Thoroughbreds, Medallion Racing and Mark Stanton, had already opened her 2026 campaign with a win in the Grade 2 Inside Information Stakes.
Reef Runner’s road is headed in a different direction but points to the same championship window. Trainer David Fawkes wants firm turf for the Jaipur winner, and the main target is the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Keeneland on Oct. 31. Reef Runner earned a fees-paid berth with his Grade 1 Jaipur victory at Saratoga on June 7, and Fawkes is looking to keep him on the East Coast through the summer, with the Grade 2 Troy Stakes on Aug. 9 emerging as the leading prep.
That plan makes Reef Runner a horse to watch beyond Saratoga’s opening months. He was fourth in last year’s Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar, and this campaign now reads like a return mission, with surface conditions and the right summer race spacing likely to decide whether he gets another crack at the championship sprint.
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