West Point will send out a pair of accomplished turf runners Saturday when Carson’s Run and Cugino contest the $175,000 Knickerbocker Stakes at Belmont Park.

They arrive from the same 1 3/16-mile allowance race at Saratoga, where Carson’s Run finished second and Cugino was three-quarters of a length behind him in third. They will meet the winner of that race, Tiz Dashing, again in the Knickerbocker, which will be contested at the same distance.

The Saratoga performance represented an encouraging step forward for Carson’s Run, a two-time Grade 1 winner who has earned more than $1.6 million. Trainer Miguel Clement believes the 5-year-old is finding his best form again.

“He’s doing incredible. Very, very well,” Clement told NYRA. “He lost his way a little bit, and I thought for the first time this year, he started to find his way again in his last race. That was his best race of the season. Hopefully, as an older horse, he just needed a little bit more time to get back to peak performance.”

Carson’s Run drew post 3 and will be ridden for the first time by Samuel Marin.

Cugino brings six victories and earnings of $823,810 into the race for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey. His résumé includes a victory in last year’s Red Smith Stakes (G2), and his third at Saratoga was his strongest effort of the season. Antonio Fresu will ride from post 7.

The Knickerbocker is Saturday’s 9th race, with post time scheduled for 3:58 ET. The race will air on FS2 and stream live on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@thenyra/streams.

Read NYRA’s Knickerbocker preview