Business as usual at the Spa as Whitebeam extends Chad Brown’s formidable record in the first G1 event of the summer showpiece – as Steve Dennis reports in his new weekly digest
Copy and paste is possibly the lowest form of journalism but sometimes there’s no real way around it. Sorry, boss, but here’s one they made earlier; Command-C, Command-V – on Saturday, Chad Brown trained the winner of the G1 Diana at Saratoga.
Again.
The man from Mechanicville, the local boy made good, has now won the highlight of opening weekend at the Spa nine times (eight times in the last nine years) and sent five to the gate in order to maintain normal service.
Whitebeam came out on top, as she did last year, although she was neither the barn’s first choice nor the owner’s selected, with the red-hot Flavien Prat in the saddle as he was 12 months ago but this time sporting a fetching green second-choice cap for Juddmonte Farms.
As seasoned Brown-watchers will know, when he has a multiple entry in a Graded stakes he often as not doesn’t win with his favoured runner. It’s his way of keeping us all guessing, like Aidan O’Brien frequently does in the Derby on the other side of the pond.
“It’s remarkable the clients I’ve had through the years, to send me and my team these horses,” said Brown. “It’s nine Dianas now and there are several team members who were there for the first Diana and have been here with all of them. That’s the consistency of the program, really.
“Whitebeam really showed up – yes, she had things her own way, but she did kick home and really extended herself, which was terrific to see.
“I want to see how all the horses come out of the race, but definitely some of the five will end up in the Ballston Spa [Aug 22]. That’s a race I love to participate in.”
And win; Brown has a record seven victories in the G2 Ballston Spa. Another bout of copy-and-paste looks on the cards.
Such repetition was an underlying theme, the melody within the mix of Whitebeam’s gate-to-wire victory – her first since last year’s Diana – from the late-closing Canadian challenger Moira and her longshot barnmate Gina Romantica.
The five-year-old grey mare, who began her career in Britain, is a daughter of crack sprinter Caravaggio, for whom it was a weekend G1 transatlantic distaff double following the success of Porta Fortuna in the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket 24 hours earlier.
The Diana was also the second distaff G1 within a fortnight for Juddmonte Farms, after Bluestocking made her top-level breakthrough in the Pretty Polly at the Curragh.
It is an old story. God doesn’t need to be on the side of the big battalions because they can take care of things themselves.
Brown – who was also on target earlier in the day with the odds-on Carl Spackler in the G3 Kelso, the colt’s third win in four starts at the Spa – and Juddmonte and Prat surely have a rewarding summer ahead of them (again).
“I was very proud of him,” said Brown of his Kelso winner. “The horse he went by [Talk Of The Nation] is pretty nice and the fractions were moderate at best. It was a real horse race the last sixteenth and I was happy he showed a lot of heart.”
A quick trawl through the record books reveals that Brown’s first-ever G1 success came in the Diana, back in 2011 when Zagora (another former Euro) put him front and centre at his home track.
Since then, it has been pretty much Command-C, Command-V all the way. Same time next year, Chad?
Good karma: Cherie DeVaux
Brown is in the vanguard of the nascent trainer’s standings but he didn’t make as clinical a start to proceedings as his former assistant Cherie DeVaux, who had six runners over opening weekend, won three races and hit the board with the remaining trio.
Allowance wins on Saturday with Rebel Red and Taking Candy were followed on Sunday by a smooth maiden score for Deep Satin, while DeVaux also sent out Northern Invader to hit the show in the G3 Kelso and Kairyu to run the place in the listed Coronation Cup.
The upwardly mobile DeVaux, who has four entries here later this week, says that her favourite track is Keeneland but any more of this and she will surely be changing her allegiance to Saratoga.
Bad karma: Danny Gargan
We have all dropped a bundle at the track at one time or another, but few of us in quite such cold blood as Belmont Stakes-winning trainer Danny Gargan, who was fined $1,000 by the stewards for his expletive-undeleted reaction after the Schuylerville on opening day.
Gargan lost his temper when his filly Complexion reared twice in the gate, decanted John Velazquez, was removed from the gate and swiftly reloaded, whereupon the gates opened before Gargan believed she was ready.
Gargan made his feelings known to the stewards over the phone in the winner’s circle, before hanging up on them in time-honoured teenage-tantrum style.
“I should have got fined, I cussed them,” Gargan told the Daily Racing Form. “But the big problem is the safety of the horse should have come first, and I don’t think we saw that. It was a bad experience for her.”
Complexion finished seventh behind upset winner The Queens M G; Gargan will be hoping for better fortune with stable star Dornoch in Saturday’s Haskell at Monmouth Park.
Week 1 in numbers
4 wins on the bounce for Twirling Queen, heroine of the Coronation Cup
5 races taken off the turf
7 wins for Flavien Prat, who heads the jockeys’ standings
9 winners of the G1 Diana for trainer Chad Brown, thanks to Whitebeam
44 odds of the meet’s first stakes-winner, The Queens M G in the Schuylerville
100 per cent record for Charlie Appleby’s Saratoga satellite barn after Star Of Mystery beat the boys in the G3 Quick Call
Horse to watch: Illuminare
Todd Pletcher has a decent prospect in the unbeaten Illuminare, who is two-for-two at Saratoga following his impressive victory in a seven-furlong allowance. The City Of Light colt never let up on the pace-setter before drawing off inside the final furlong, wrapped up late to get the job done by 4¾ lengths.
“I thought it was a brave effort on only his second start,” said Pletcher. “He pulled away in the end and I think he should appreciate even more distance.”
Illuminare will be nominated for the G1 H Allen Jerkens Memorial [Aug 24], but that is a seven-furlong heat and he might be stretching out by then. There’s plenty more to come.
Quotes of the week
“That’s how it is when you race with someone who has five horses in the race; next time I scratch. I try everything with this guy, he’s impossible to beat when he puts in four or five horses.”
Ignacio Correas IV, trainer of Diana fourth Didia, vents his frustration with Chad Brown’s ‘mob rule’ to the Daily Racing Form. Don’t scratch, Nacho!
“He worried me because he got a little more nervous in the paddock today than at Aqueduct, but I’m really excited how he did everything. I usually get a little nervous before a race, whether a $5,000 maiden at Finger Lakes or the Sanford, but I was pretty confident the way he had been training.”
Mo Plex beats his nerves and his opposition to take the G3 Sanford, justifying a rare show of confidence from trainer Jeremiah Englehart.
The ‘where are they now?’ file
There was only a head (belonging to National Treasure) between Blazing Sevens and Preakness glory last spring, but the Good Magic colt has been unable to parlay that Classic form into a career of substance and could run only a tepid fourth in an allowance on Thursday.
Coming soon
Despite a short field of just five, the weekend highlight is the $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks, which provides clear divisional leader Thorpedo Anna with the opportunity to reinforce her lofty status via a third successive win in G1 company.
The Kenny McPeek-trained filly rides a mighty three-streak into the race, her record boasting wide-margin scores in the Kentucky Oaks and the Acorn over the course-and-distance of Saturday’s contest. Her main rival is likely to be Acorn runner-up Leslie’s Rose.
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