Throughout the Saratoga summer meet, the New York Racing Association offers a variety of themed days: Kids Day, First Responders Day, Aftercare Day, Lustgarten Day. 

Though it didn’t make the official calendar, Saturday, July 19 might well have been designated Midlantic Day at Saratoga Race Course, given how the stakes races turned out.

Future Is Now (MD) and Book’em Danno (NJ) took two of the three stakes that day, Future Is Now prevailing in the Grade 3 Caress Stakes, with Book’em Danno winning the Grade 2 Alfred G. Vanderbilt, his third graded win, all of them coming at Saratoga.

Wearing the black-and-white colors of her late owner and breeder R. Larry Johnson, Virginia-certified Future Is Now was ridden by Jersey-based Paco Lopez. She ran third in the Caress last year, hitting the wire just two necks behind the winner, Pennsylvania-bred Dontlookbackatall. (PA-breds Caravel and Roses for Debra won the race in 2021 and 2023, giving Midlantic-bred horses wins in the stakes in four of the last five years.)

Future Is Now has shown an affinity for Saratoga, with a record of 3-1-1 from five starts at the upstate New York track, including a win and a narrow second in the last two editions of the Grade 2 Intercontinental Stakes. 

Johnson died earlier this year, and he was represented in the winner’s circle by his daughter Kelly, her husband Arturo, and her children Isabella, Olivia, and Arturo. Her sister Tracy was unable to make the trip to Saratoga. 

“It’s unbelievable,” said Kelly in the winner’s circle. “I feel like he’s looking down on us and would be so proud. We always told him we would continue his racing and breeding business, but we didn’t expect to take over so suddenly and soon. This is a celebration of what he created. It’s bittersweet but amazing.” 

Future Is Now by Great Notion and out of the Bernardini mare Past as Prelude. Of five offspring to make it to the races, three of them have earned over $300,000.  Multiple stakes placed Virginia-bred Continentalcongres (2019) earned $313,800; multiple graded stakes winner Future Is Now (2020) has banked $748,410; and graded stakes placed Maryland-bred Call Another Play (2021) has earned $370,345.

She hails from the same female family as the multiple Grade 1 winner Mindframe, recent victor in the Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs.

Future Is Now is trained by Maryland native Michael Trombetta, who said that he may well follow the same path with the bay mare as he did last year, going from the Caress to the Smart N Fancy Stakes at Saratoga, which she won, and then on to stakes races at Keeneland in October.

“She has been a gem,” said Trombetta. “She is easy to train, does everything right. She shows up almost every time.” 

Lopez was in the saddle for the Vanderbilt, too, but unlike the outside trip that Future Is Now prefers, Book’em Danno rode the rail and saved ground before engaging rival Mullikin in the stretch as he did in the True North Stakes at Saratoga in June. And as he did in the True North, Book’em Danno edged clear to get the win, this one by 2 1/2 lengths. 

Like Future Is Now, Book’em Danno is Virginia-certified, and like Future Is Now, he loves Saratoga, with three wins and a third from four starts, all in graded stakes. 

The 4-year-old gelding’s backstory is well-known by now: a group of friends who owned horses together in the 1980s, drifted away from the sport while they raised families, and re-grouped over the last few years have found themselves traveling the world and the country with a horse that their managing partner picked out of a field in Virginia.

That partner, Jay Briscione, couldn’t be at Saratoga for the Vanderbilt; his son was getting married in Virginia. But a few years ago, Briscione and his brother, who is an equine dentist, were talking about reestablishing the partnership. His brother suggested that he get in touch with someone in Virginia who was selling New Jersey-breds. Briscione follows the races closely, and he knew that a filly named Girl Trouble had won recently at Monmouth. Girl Trouble’s younger half-brother was among those Virginia horses for sale, and when Briscione saw him, he said, “I’ll take that one.” 

Since then, Book’em Danno has earned just shy of $1.6 million, with 9 wins from 15 starts, with three wins and a second. Trainer Derek Ryan has his eye on the Grade 1 Forego at Saratoga on Aug. 23, but, well aware of his clients’ Jersey roots, he’s keeping his options open.

“You never know,” he said with a smile. “There’s a Jersey-bred stakes at Monmouth we might throw him into, too. You never know.”