Andy Newton
Slay The Day won the Grade 3 Soaring Softly Stakes at Saratoga for Brian Lynch and John Velazquez, beating Hen Party as Niche came out of the final field.
The speedy 3yold Slay The Day turned a strong pre-race profile into a clean Grade 3 result at Saratoga on Sunday, winning the Soaring Softly Stakes on the closing card of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival by 2 3/4 lengths.
Slay The Day Blasted Home In Just Over One Minute
The Brian Lynch-trained filly, ridden by John Velazquez for Flying Dutchmen, took the 5f110y turf contest for three-year-old fillies by two and three-quarter lengths from Hen Party.
Cadenza finished third, another half-length back, with Flowerhead fourth.
With the winning time 1m 1.02s, plus a win that gave the Brian Lynch barn their second Soaring Softly Stakes – having landed the prize in 2016 with Lightstream.
Slay The Day’s win also provided veteran rider John Velazquez with a second success in the race – after riding Richies Party Girl to victory in 2014, when the race was called the Wait A While Stakes.
Soaring Softly Stakes Result 2026
🥇 SLAY THE DAY (4/6 fav)
🥈 Hen Party (17/4)
🥉 Cadenza (11/2)
- Winning Trainer: Brian A Lynch
- Winning Jockey: John R Velazquez
- Winning Owner: Flying Dutchmen
WATCH: Slay The Day Winning The 2026 Soaring Softly Stakes
Slay The Day backs up the billing in Soaring Softly Stakes
NYRA had framed Slay The Day as a filly in good order before the race, with Lynch noting she had come out of two strong races and had been training well.
That confidence was backed up on the track. Slay The Day had already shown her turf ability when winning the Grade 3 Limestone at Keeneland in April, and Sunday’s success gives her another graded sprint win over the same 5f110y distance.
Hen Party gave Godolphin a clear runner-up finish for Eoin Harty and Flavien Prat, while Brad Cox’s Cadenza stayed on for third. Flowerhead, making her first US start after British black-type form, finished fourth for Charlie Clover, who is based in Newmarket.
Festival closes with a clear turf-sprint marker
The Soaring Softly did not carry the weight of Saturday’s Grade 1 programme, but it still gave Saratoga’s final Belmont Stakes Racing Festival card a useful graded-race result.
The key point is that Slay The Day did not merely hold her place in the division. She confirmed it.
A second Grade 3 turf-sprint success in the space of two months gives Lynch a three-year-old filly with a firmer summer profile, while the first three home all came from yards likely to keep shaping the US turf sprint programme.
2026 Soaring Softly Stakes – The Key facts
- Race: Soaring Softly Stakes, Grade 3
- Course: Saratoga
- Date: Sunday, 7 June 2026
- Distance: 5f110y
- Surface: Turf
- Going: Firm
- Winner: Slay The Day
- Trainer: Brian Lynch
- Jockey: John Velazquez
- Owner: Flying Dutchmen
- Runner-up: Hen Party
- Third: Cadenza
- Field size: Seven runners
- Winning margin: 2 3/4 lengths
- Winning time: 1m 1.02s
- Non-runner: Niche
