Brown Runs 1-2-3 in Ballston Spa, Decries Small Field
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Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt
Jockey Frankie Dettori does the flying dismount after winning the Ballston Spa Stakes aboard Beaute Cachee at Saratoga Race Course
There was a time when trainer Chad Brown sent out all of the starters in a New York Racing Association graded stakes.
It was the 2019 Lake George Stakes (G3T) and Brown had three of the six entrants. The other three horses scratched and Brown had the easiest 1-2-3 finish in the four-time Eclipse Award winner's career.
Brown's horses finished 1-2-3 once again Aug. 22 in the $279,000 Ballston Spa Stakes (G2T) for fillies and mares at Saratoga Race Course.
Jockey Frankie Dettori gave Beaute Cachee another masterful ride on the front end to register a neck victory over stablemate Gina Romantica with Brown's Delahaye third.
Finishing fourth was the only other starter in the race, the Mike Repole-owned and Todd Pletcher-trained Surprisingly , and afterwards Brown decried the lack of entries in a valuable race for a distaff turfer.
"It's a four-horse field and the stalls are full here at NYRA. There are no empty stalls. So where are the other (trainers)? They need to stop complaining and start running," Brown said. "I have three very different horses and we pointed them for this race. I didn't sit out and wait for a Kentucky Downs race. I didn't run anything at Woodbine this month. I could have split these horses up, but the owners are fine with running against each other. It doesn't feel good getting beat by one of my other horses, but I want to support NYRA. These are prestigious races with a full backside. I find it very hard to believe there are not older filly and mare turfers who could go in a nice grade 2 stakes like this and not only support NYRA but improve the value of their horse.
"Whose fault is it? Not mine. I am going to show up. I don't even read the nominations. I just point and shoot."
The Ballston Spa marked Dettori's third ride on Beaute Cachee and his third front-running win aboard her.
"I'm proud of her, the way she was able to back the pace down, and then still kick in the end and hold off a good filly," Brown said after his eighth win in the Ballston Spa.
Repeating wins in the Jenny Wiley Stakes (G1T) and most recently the Matchmaker Stakes (G3T), the legendary European rider hustled the 5-year-old Literato mare to the front in the 1 1/16-mile stakes through an opening quarter in :23.76. He then slowed the pace to :49.54 on the backstretch and the grade 1 winner responded gamely in the stretch to hold off Gina Romantica's late bid.
"I had to use her little bit to get to the front. You know she is a wonderful filly. She knows how to relax as well in front," Dettori said. "We showed to the world that she is a real fighter, she doesn't give up. They all came to take me on, and she shrugged them all off. She has that will to win, that is so great."
Out of the Hurricane Run mare Sign And Seal and bred by Gregor Vischer, Beaute Cachee ($7.10) covered the distance in 1:44.41
Owned by Louis Lazzinnaro, Madaket Stables, Michael Caruso, and Michael Dubb, Beaute Cachee won for the sixth time in 21 starts.
Peter Brant's Gina Romantica, a multiple grade 1-winning daughter of Into Mischief , was second by a half-length over Delahaye, a Medaglia d'Oro filly owned by William Lawrence and Three Chimneys Farm.
Brown said he would likely point Beaute Cachee and Gina Romantica to the Oct. 5 First Lady Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland, a race Gina Romantica captured last year.
Brown also entered Coppice who was scratched.