Laurel-based Balboa returns to NYC for Gotham
50 Kentucky Derby points to the winner
The Biz
February 22, 2026
Grade 2-placed Balboa will try to break through for a graded stakes win in Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham at Aqueduct Racetrack, a one-turn mile offering 50-25-15-10-5 Kentucky Derby qualifying points.
Trained by Brittany Russell, Balboa exits a runner-up finish in the Jerome over the same track and distance, where he briefly took command under Manny Franco before being caught late by My World, earning a career-best 81 Beyer. My World subsequently finished 11th in the Saudi Derby Feb. 14.
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“As disappointed as you are to lose, you still have to appreciate the effort,” Russell said in a NYRA release.
The colt, owned by SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Bashor Racing, Determined Stables, Golconda Stable, Waves Edge Capital and Catherine Donovan was previously trained by Bob Baffert. He has hit the board in both Aqueduct starts since joining Russell and now owns nine Derby points.
Russell had entered Balboa in Saturday’s $100,000 Miracle Wood at Laurel Park but sat that out to await the Gotham. No matter, though: she sent out Taj Mahal, owned by a similar ownership group, to win a hard-fought battle over Let’s Go Lando.
Instead, she breezed Balboa Thursday, and he went five furlongs in 1:01 4/5.
“I wanted to put a steady five-eighths into him with a nice gallop-out, and he did just what we were looking for,” Russell said.
Balboa, 2-for-7 in his career, won at Del Mar at second asking last summer. He earned his only stakes win to date in his first start in Russell’s barn when he won the James F. Lewis, III Stakes at Laurel Nov. 8.
Balboa will break from post 1 with Sheldon Russell aboard. The Gotham has drawn a field of nine and is the tenth race on the program.
LAUREL NOTES Jockey Yedsit Hazlewood won three races Sunday, including an allowance score aboard Phlying Phyllis ($5.00) for trainer Gary Capuano… Safely Kept Stakes winner Grayson’s Girl ($6.20) made her first start of ’26 a winning one, taking the featured second-level allowance by 4 ¼ lengths. She was ridden by Jevian Toledo for trainer Brittany Russell and owner John Middleton and earned her fourth win in 11 career starts… Jockey Carlos Lopez won a pair, including taking a $40,000 maiden claimer aboard Flirty Bajan ($4.00) for trainer Henry Walters and owner AJ Will Win Stables, the connections behind Barbadian Runner… No winner paid above $6.60 on a day of rain and mostly compact fields…
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