Twenty Six Black wins Harvey Pack Stakes at Saratoga in turf sprint effort

Twenty Six Black turned a demanding early pace into a 2 3/4-length victory in Sunday’s Listed $200,000 Harvey Pack Stakes at Saratoga Race Course, stopping the clock in 1:00.49 for 5 1/2 furlongs on firm Mellon turf. The 6-year-old gelding, a New York homebred owned and bred by Roger Cimbora, Jr., delivered the kind of stalking trip that can matter all summer in Saratoga’s older-horse sprint division.

Bring Theband Home set the race up by firing through an opening quarter in 20.90 seconds and a half-mile in 43.54 before fading late. Manny Franco kept Twenty Six Black in range, and when the front end softened, the Horacio De Paz trainee finished cleanly enough to separate from the field. Possiblemente held second, Coppola was third, and Chasing Liberty and We’re in Trouble dead-heated for fourth. Full Disclosure and Boss Sully completed the order of finish.

The result carried more weight than a single stakes check. Twenty Six Black improved his Saratoga record to 9-3-3-1, a Spa résumé that now includes the restricted Disco Partner Stakes and a runner-up finish to Bring Theband Home in last summer’s Grade 2 Troy. He also came into the Harvey Pack off a 1 1/2-length fourth in the Grade 1 Jaipur on June 6, so this was not a horse finding a softer spot. It was a horse stepping forward against stakes company and reversing recent form against a rival who had already beaten him.

That made the win his first open-company stakes victory, a useful line for a gelding by War Dancer out of Brazo de Oro by First Dude who has spent enough time around Saratoga to know exactly what works here. Franco said he had been aboard for 10 of the horse’s starts and believed the fast early pace fit his stalking style. De Paz was even more direct afterward, saying, “I love him” and calling him “such a consistent horse.”

The Harvey Pack itself has become a familiar summer speed test at Saratoga, and the 2026 renewal showed why. With older sprinters already lining up around the meet, a horse that can sit just off a sharp pace, handle firm turf and finish with authority tends to keep showing up in the right places. Twenty Six Black did not just win the race; he ran like a horse that belongs in the rest of the sequence.