Two-day Saratoga Pick 6 joins Whitney Stakes, Saratoga Derby

The New York Racing Association has announced the Whitney-Saratoga Derby Pick 6, a special two-day all-stakes wager, kicking off with three races on Saturday's Whitney Stakes day card and concluding on Saratoga Derby day Sunday at Saratoga Race Course.

The two-day Pick 6, featuring a $0.20 minimum and low 15 percent takeout, includes a mandatory payout.

The sequence kicks off in Saturday's eighth [5:06 p.m. Eastern] with the Grade 1, $500,000 Longines Test, a seven-furlong sprint for 3-year-old fillies featuring Grade 1-winners Bellafina and Serengeti Empress.

The second leg is the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney [Race 9, 5:46 p.m.], a Breeders' Cup "Win and You're In" challenge series race offering a berth in the Breeders' Cup Classic on November 2 at Santa Anita Park, featuring Thunder Snow, the world's richest active racehorse with $16,511,746 in purse earnings, looking for his first win in North America. The two-time Group 1 Dubai World winner will have to topple a loaded field of older horses that includes Grade 1-winners McKinzie, Yoshida and Vino Rosso.

The 92nd running of the 1 1/8-mile Whitney will be broadcast nationwide on NBC from 5-6 p.m.

The $100,000 Fasig-Tipton De La Rose [Race 10, 6:22 p.m.], a one-mile turf event for 4-year-olds and up, completes the first half of the two-day Pick 6 sequence.

The two-day Pick 6 concludes on Sunday's Saratoga Derby card, beginning with the fourth leg in Race 5 at 3:21 p.m. with the Grade 3, $200,000 Fasig-Tipton Waya, a 12-furlong turf marathon for fillies and mares 3-years-old and upward, featuring the Chad Brown-trained duo of Fools Gold and Santa Monica.

The penultimate leg will be the inaugural running of the $1 million Saratoga Derby [Race 9, 5:48 p.m.], the second leg of the newly-minted Turf Trinity series for sophomores. Henley's Joy was a three-quarter length winner of the first leg of the Turf Triple series, the $1 million Belmont Derby Invitational, at odds of 20-1.

Closing out the lucrative two-day Pick 6 sequence is the Grade 2, $200,000 Adirondack [Race 10, 6:23 p.m.], a 6 ½-furlong sprint for 2-year-old fillies.

The 2019 summer meet at Saratoga Race Course will continue through Labor Day, Monday, September 2. Racing at Saratoga Race Course is held five days a week, Wednesdays through Sundays. Closing week will run Wednesday, August 28 through Labor Day.