Not only did trainer Chad Brown win the Grade I Diana Stakes at Saratoga Race Course for the ninth time in his career — and eighth in the last nine years — but the horse who walked into the winner’s circle on Saturday was the same one who did so last year. Brown had five entered in the 10-horse field, but it was 2023 winner Whitebeam who got to the wire first, again, by three-quarters of a length over Moira. Whitebeam and jockey Flavien Prat were able to get to the lead and get through the early splits at a moderate pace, made a move at the quarter-pole and had enough left to hold off the hard charge from rivals.
Brown also trained Sistercharlie (2018-19) to back-to-back wins in the Diana, which was first run in 1939. Other horses who have won it twice in a row are Glowing Honor (1988-89), Shuvee (1970-71), Tempted (1959-60) and Miss Grillo (1946-47). Searching win it twice in three years, 1956 and 1958.
“There's a very short list of races when I left Frankel that it was just instilled in me that he held in high regard and pointed towards,” Brown said of the late Bobby Frankel, Brown’s former boss. “The Diana was way up on that list. For him to hold it in high regard, it really must have meant something.
“So, I thought if I ever had good enough horses, this is a race I really need to focus on because he’s not wrong much. I'm very fortunate to have horses good enough to run in this race, really." Prat was able to get the 5-year-old Whitebeam through the first quarter-mile in 24.
26, the half in 49.49 and six furlongs in 1:13.76.
“It felt like I was kind of the lone speed,” he said. “Obviously, she put me right into the race, and it felt like she was very happy on the front end and responded very well when I asked her to make a move.” “There was a lack of pace on paper,” Brown said.
“When we spoke about the race this morning, Flavien thought she would be happiest of she could just get to the lead. His plan was to go out there and just try to control the race and see if she was good enough to hold on.” Since last year’s Diana, Whitebeam has been winless, but has been knocking on the door.
She lost the Beaugay at Aqueduct by a neck and was only a half-length behind stablemate Chili Flag in the Grade I Just a Game on June 7 during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga. “I was cautiously optimistic she would run her best race of the year, the way she was training since her last race,” Brown said. “It’s really how her year started last year.
She needed one run to get her going and got better as the year went on.” Last week, the Jeremiah Englehart-trained 2-year-old Mo Plex accelerated into his workout just ahead of two horses trained by Todd Pletcher, and Englehart apologized afterward, in case his horse had compromised what Pletcher was trying to do with his. Englehart was thrilled with Mo Plex’s time, and out of curiosity, he asked Pletcher who his two horses were.
“That’s your competition next week,” Pletcher said. Even better. Ultimately, Pletcher didn’t have a horse in the Grade III Sanford on Saturday, after 6-5 morning-line favorite Mentee scratched in the morning with a temperature, and Mo Plex beat everybody who did run, winning by a length over Studlydoright.
It was a terrific win for the New York-bred program, which is well-represented in Englehart’s barn. “I love the program,” Englehart said. “This is where I call home all year long.
This year, we really focused on buying New York-breds, and hopefully there’s a couple more we can unveil later in the meet and have some fun with. “But it’s a tremendous program. They’ve shown that they can run with anything.
It’s almost like job security when you’re able to have New York-breds.” Mo Plex, trained by Jeremiah Englehart and ridden by Irad Ortiz, Jr., wins the Grade III Sanford Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on Saturday, July 13, 2024.
Also on the card, Carl Spackler got out of the rough and back onto the fairway in the Grade III Kelso, outdueling Talk of the Nation by a half-length to rebound from a fifth-place finish in the Grade III Poker on Belmont Stakes Day on June 8. Carl Spackler had been riding a three-race winning streak going back to the Grade II National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame and the Grade III Saranac at Saratoga last summer. Two days before this year’s Kentucky Derby, he made his 2024 debut and won the Opening Verse at Churchill Downs.
“In the last race, in hindsight, maybe he bounced a little bit off the Churchill race, because he had a challenging trip in there and was able to gut it out off a long layoff,” Brown said. “I didn't really react to the [Poker] result. I just got him back to his normal training routine, and he redeemed himself today.
“Tyler [Gaffalione] rode a beautiful race. I know it's only a four-horse field, but it was a little tricky into that first turn to figure out where he's going to be. When the one [Call Me Harry] took back, he had to call an audible and it was a winning move, for sure.
” “All the credit goes to Chad and his team — they had him ready to fire today,” Gaffalione said. Brown said Carl Spackler would probably point toward the Grade I Fourstardave on Aug. 10, also at a mile on the turf.
The Charlie Appleby-trained Mysterious Night, the 8-5 morning-line favorite for the Kelso, scratched, leaving the field at four horses..
