Brown Duo Takes on Classic Q in Lake George Stakes

Five-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown will send out two fillies—Play With Fire  and Lavender Disaster  in the $175,000 Lake George Stakes (G3T) July 26 at Saratoga Race Course.

Brown has had great success in the 1 1/16-mile race, having sent out seven winners in the last 10 years with five consecutive wins from 2019-23. Brown's most recent winner of the race—Surge Capacity went on to become a grade 1 winner, and sold for $3.6 million in foal to perennial leading sire Into Mischief   at last year's Fasig-Tipton November Sale.

There are nine 3-year-old fillies entered in the body of the field, plus one main-track-only entrant. 

LSU Stable's Play With Fire comes into the race with a stakes win under her belt. She took the Hilltop Stakes at Pimlico Race Course May 1, where she defeated Pretty Lavish  and Princess Attitude .

Brown's fillies will have a rematch with Gary Barber, Blue Crevalle Racing, and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' Classic Q , gate-to-wire winner of the Wild Applause Stakes at Saratoga July 3. The daughter of Classic Empire  held off Play With Fire by half a length in the Wild Applause, with Peter Brant's Lavender Disaster 2 1/4 lengths back in third.

"There wasn't any speed in the race last time. I prefer and I think (jockey Jose Ortiz) prefers to try and get her to settle," said dual Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse. "Now, we're going another sixteenth of a mile, but we'll take a closer look at the race and see. She's training well and she likes it here, so we're going to give it a shot.

"Last time, Chad's horse (Lavender Disaster) did put a little pressure on us, and she put that horse away," added Casse, who won this race last year with Pounce. "If we do go to the lead and they run with her, they won't be around at the end. But we'll see."

Trainer Rusty Arnold will send out the lone graded stakes-placed filly—Calumet Farm's homebred Daisy Flyer . She was most recently third in the Herecomesthebride Stakes (G3T) at Gulfstream Park March 1, where she defeated the aforementioned Classic Q. 

"Her 2-year-old year was better than it looked," Arnold said. "She got beat first time and then she won at Kentucky Downs in a pretty good race. She got injured in the Miss Grillo and missed the rest of the year, but we've always been high on this filly.

"We're hoping to get her back to that point where we can run her a mile-and-a-quarter, mile-and-a-half—that's what she wants, but we have to get started here."