Diana S.

At 8-1, Peter Brant's In Italian (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) may have been the least fancied of the four Chad Brown runners in this six-horse renewal of the GI Diana S. Saturday at Saratoga, but she did the most running, wiring the field in a course record-setting performance. Her three stablemates--Technical Analysis (Ire) (Kingman {GB}), favored Brant colorbearer Bleecker Street (Quality Road) and Rougir (Fr) (Territories {Ire}), partially owned by Brant--finished behind her in that order for a Brown superfecta. Hesitating for just a breath while breaking from post six, In...

In this continuing series, we examine the past winners of significant filly/mare races by the lasting influence they've had on the breed. Up today is Saratoga's GI Diana S., contested at 1 1/8 miles on the lawn. These days, the Diana is restricted to fillies and mares ages four and up. That wasn't always the case, as a number of 3-year-old fillies have won in the past. That's not the only thing that's changed: the Diana is such a fixture on the grass that it may come as a surprise...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - It is pretty much impossible to overstate just how invested trainer Chad Brown is in the Diana S., the first Grade I of the Saratoga season, which will be run on Saturday. Brown earned the first Grade I victory of his career when Zagora (Fr) (Green Tune) prevailed in 2011. He has won the race five more times, all in a row, for a stakes record six. He has entered the race for 13 consecutive years and had at least one horse in the top three...

One of these years, the New York Racing Association (NYRA) may have to switch the name of the GI Diana S. to the Chad Brown. With five straight victories, six wins overall and 17 in-the-money finishes since he saddled his first runner in the race in 2009, Brown has, well, dominated the 1 1/8 mile race for fillies and mares on the inner turf course. Brown will try to extend his unprecedented Saratoga graded-stakes streak Saturday with a pair of runners, Juddmonte's Pocket Square (GB) (Night of Thunder {Ire}) and...

One year after their very first Breeders' Cup win with New Money Honey (Medaglia d'Oro) in 2016, Bob and Kristine Edwards of e5 Racing Thoroughbreds found themselves in the winner's circle once again for the same race, with the same trainer-jockey duo, when Rushing Fall claimed the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. As it turned out it was hardly beginner's luck, as Rushing Fall's victory was a good omen for the family's second Breeders' Cup contender that year, and it proved to be just the start of an unforgettable...

The list of horses that have won the GI Diana S. on multiple occasions reads like a veritable horse racing Hall of Fame: Miss Grillo, Tempted, Shuvee, Glowing Honor and Forever Together have all accomplished the feat. Peter Brant's Sistercharlie (Ire) (Myboycharlie {Ire}) can ascend to the top of that classy heap as she goes for the three-peat Sunday afternoon at Saratoga, but a fait accompli is most certainly is not. The 2018 champion turf female made best use of her superior turn of foot to easily defeat her stablemate...