WITTY SEEKS VAN CLIEF REPEAT, ROJA HEADLINES ANDY GUEST ON COLONIAL DOWNS FESTIVAL OF RACING CARD
Posted on July 26th, 2026
Multiple stakes winner Roja heads the lineup for the $150,000 Andy Guest Stakes at Colonial Downs on Aug. 1. Photo credit: Coady Media.
Witty seeks a repeat score the $150,000 Van Clief Stakes on Sat., Aug. 1 at Colonial Downs. Photo credit: Coady Media.
NEW KENT, Va. (July 26, 2026) — Millionaire Witty will defend his title in the $150,000 Van Clief Stakes, while Grade 2 winner Roja headlines the $150,000 Andy Guest Stakes in a pair of 5½-furlong turf sprints featured on Saturday’s Festival of Racing card at Colonial Downs. The eight-race stakes program offers $2.6 million in purses and is headlined by the Grade 1 Arlington Million.
A full field of 14 is entered in the Van Clief, where Witty returns after becoming a millionaire with a victory in the Ben’s Cat Stakes at Laurel Park on June 20. Bred, owned and trained by Elizabeth Merryman, the 7-year-old Great Notion gelding has won at least one stakes race in each season of his career. Witty enters off back-to-back victories in his first two starts of 2026, with Jeiron Barbosa aboard for both wins and returning to ride.
Among his chief challengers is Governor Sam, who brings sharp form after capturing the Get Serious Stakes at Monmouth Park on June 21 for trainer George Weaver. The 4-year-old owns multiple stakes victories, including the 2025 Grade 3 Quick Call Stakes at Saratoga and 2024 Colonial Downs’ Exacta Systems Rosie’s Stakes. Meet-leading rider Paco Lopez reunites with the gelding.
With career earnings just shy of $1.5 million, Grade 2 winner My Boy Prince also looms as a major player. Trained by Mark Casse, the son of Cairo Prince captured the Grade 2 Shakertown Stakes at Keeneland this spring and will be ridden by Hall of Famer John Velazquez.
Had to Have Him returns after finishing second to Witty in last year’s Van Clief and most recently in the Ben’s Cat, while trainer Ned Allard sends out a pair led by Alogon, winner of the 2025 Grade 3 Belmont Turf Sprint.
The Andy Guest Stakes for older fillies and mares begins the day’s stakes action in Race 4. The field of seven is led by multiple stakes winner Roja, who exits a dominant front-running victory in the Grade 2 Intercontinental Stakes at Saratoga for trainer Graham Motion. Manny Franco has the call.
Dual dirt stakes winner G W’s Girl offers intriguing versatility for trainer Greg Compton. The 4-year-old Munnings filly won the Dixie Belle and Mockingbird Stakes at Oaklawn Park during the winter of 2025 and broke her maiden sprinting five furlongs on the turf as a 2-year-old. She enters her third start of the year with Jareth Loveberry named to ride.
Others capable of an upset include Lucy McGee, who has won two straight since joining the barn of trainer Vicki Oliver; Obstreperous, a five-time turf winner exiting a fourth-place finish in the Grade 2 Caress Stakes; and Elizabeth Merryman’s homebred Somnium, a half-sister to 2022 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Caravel who appears poised to run a career-best effort.
Three graded turf stakes headline the Festival of Racing, including the Grade 2 Beverly D. Stakes and the Grade 2 Secretariat Stakes, each worth $500,000. A trio of dirt stakes rounds out the eight-stakes program.
Complete fields for the Van Clief and Andy Guest, as well as the entire Festival of Racing card, are available on Equibase: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/RaceCardIndexCNL080126USA-EQB.html.
First post for Saturday’s 12-race card is 12 p.m. ET and tickets for the Colonial Downs Festival of Racing are available at ColonialDowns.com.
