Ways and Means Seeks Back-to-Back Bed o' Roses Wins

Ways and Means  looks to defend her crown in the June 5 $300,000 Bed o' Roses Stakes (G2) at Saratoga Race Course.

The 5-year-old daughter of Practical Joke   scored in last year's edition of the race by 7 3/4 lengths, a stakes record for margin of victory, defeating eventual Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) winner Scylla . After her Bed o' Roses romp, she developed an illness that caused her to miss the rest of her 4-year-old year. The homebred for Klaravich Stables returned to the races May 2 in the Derby City Distaff (G1), where she finished second behind Saffie Joseph Jr.'s R Disaster . 

"I'd like her to be a champion. I want to see her win the Breeders' Cup at Keeneland. I've won the race three times, and she's as good as any of them," Brown said. "It's a little extra special that she's a homebred. She's been a super talent since the day she stepped in the barn. I'm hoping to see her break good and put herself in a good spot. She's doing super. I had two fillies that really needed runs at Churchill that are doing really well. They both got the races they needed. They got a good blow out of it, and it will move them forward."

Ways and Means is 4-for-5 over the Saratoga surface; her only loss came as a 2-year-old, when she was defeated in the Spinaway Stakes (G1). She had her grade 1 breakthrough at 3, in a no doubt about it victory in the Test Stakes (G1). She is slated as the even money morning-line favorite in the Bed o' Roses, where she will be ridden by jockey Flavien Prat in the 7-furlong test.

Ways and Means will have to beat Grand Job , who is the second betting choice at odds of 6-5. Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott and Junior Alvarado team up with the 5-year-old daughter of Justify  . She was beaten a nose by Eclatant  in her last start, the April 4 Madison Stakes (G1) at Keeneland. Grand Job won her first start of the year, scoring in the Jan. 24 Inside Information (G2) at Gulfstream Park. Owned by Bell Tower Thoroughbreds, Medallion Racing, and Mark Stanton, she began her career in Ireland under trainer Joseph O'Brien. 

Irad Ortiz Jr. is looking to stand alone for most Bed o' Roses victories when he is legged up on Brown's second entrant Senza Parole . Ortiz is currently tied with Robbie Davis at three wins apiece. The 4-year-old daughter of Gun Runner   was second by a length in her last start to Queen Azteca  in an allowance optional claiming race at Keeneland. A homebred for Don Alberto Stable, she won her first start of the year in an allowance optional claiming race at Gulfstream Park, crushing the field by 7 1/4 lengths.