Journalism targets Met Mile, Stephen Foster still under consideration

Aron Wellman made the choice clear: Journalism’s next stop is Saratoga, and the Grade 1, $1 million Met Mile on June 6 is the horse’s top target. The $2 million Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs three weeks later remains on the table, but only if the 4-year-old comes out of Saratoga in peak shape.

That decision says plenty about how Journalism’s camp sees the son of Curlin now. The Met Mile is a one-turn Grade 1 at Saratoga Race Course, staged during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival from June 3-7, while the Stephen Foster is a 1 1/8-mile test at Churchill Downs on June 27. One is a sharp, high-speed assignment against elite older milers. The other stretches a colt farther and asks for a different kind of stamina, in a race that has suddenly become far richer and far more crowded.

Wellman said the Met Mile had been on the team’s radar since the Breeders’ Cup last November, and trainer Michael McCarthy had already signaled that “the plan right now is to go to New York.” In Wellman’s view, the current older-horse division is deep enough that every major summer race feels like a title fight. He called each one a “championship-caliber race” and a “war,” a fitting description for a campaign in which the margin between choosing one target and another could define Journalism’s ceiling.

The Stephen Foster’s appeal has grown quickly. Churchill Downs doubled the purse on May 20 from $1 million to $2 million and branded the race the “Summer Showdown.” The 45th running, for 4-year-olds and up at 1 1/8 miles, is already shaping into a loaded matchup with Sovereignty, Baeza, Magnitude, White Abarrio and Skippylongstocking among the likely names in the mix. That kind of field turns a summer Grade 1 into a major measuring stick, especially for a horse whose résumé already includes wins in the Santa Anita Derby, Preakness Stakes and Haskell Stakes, plus runner-up finishes in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.

Journalism brings legitimate form into Saratoga. He returned from a freshening to finish third in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap on April 18 in Hot Springs, then worked five furlongs in 59.40 seconds at Santa Anita on May 22 in preparation for New York. Through 12 starts, he has banked $4,470,755, and his 2025 season ended with a fourth-place run in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. The Met Mile offers a clean, one-turn Grade 1 on a track where his camp wants to learn more about his identity. If he handles it well, the richer, longer Stephen Foster could become the next step in a campaign built not just on opportunity, but on proving how high Journalism’s ceiling really is.