Diana Stakes

Chad Brown has won the GI Diana Stakes seven times in its last eight runnings and, well, the odds say that right about 5:45 p.m. Saturday, that will be eight out of the last nine. That's because the Mechanicville native will send out half of the 10 runners for the first elite-level contest of the Saratoga meeting. Strength, indeed, in numbers, but a quintet also not short on quality. Chili Flag (Fr) (Cityscape {GB}) is perhaps the antithetical European import for the barn in the sense that she required three...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY -- It's a tossup as to what is the biggest sporting event this weekend for trainer Jeremiah Englehart. The choices are these: the $175,000 GIII Sanford Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on Saturday or the Vermont Lacrosse Classic two and a half hours away in the town of Essex. Come again? Englehart will do double duty because three of his five kids are in the lacrosse travel tournament. He wont miss that. And he can't be absent from the Spa because he has to to saddle Mo...

After a very successful mini-meet highlighted by the running of the GI Belmont Stakes, NYRA is set to return to Saratoga for the start of the 2024 meet. Guiding the ship will be NYRA President and CEO Dave O'Rourke, who will be hoping for sunny skies, no breakdowns and record attendance and handle numbers. That's a lot to ask, but it is Saratoga, where magical things happen. To talk about the meet, O'Rourke joined this week's TDN Writers' Room Podcast Presented by Keeneland. He was the Green Group Guest of...

A pair of runners from the barn of trainer Chad Brown tuned up for expected starts in the July 17 GI Diana S. with works over the inner turf course at Belmont Park Sunday morning. Lemista (Ire) (Raven's Pass) went five furlongs in a bullet 1:01.80 (1/10) outside of stablemate Pocket Square (GB) (Night of Thunder {Ire}), who completed the drill in 1:01.89 (3/10). Peter Brant's Lemista, a two-time group winner in Ireland last year, opened her stateside campaign with a late-closing runner-up effort in the GIII Beaugay S. last...

Star turf mare Rushing Fall (More Than Ready) avenged a loss as the favorite in last year's GI Diana S. Sunday at Saratoga, wearing down pacesetting Mean Mary (Scat Daddy) in a thrilling stretch duel to earn her sixth Grade I victory. The win also gave trainer Chad Brown a remarkable fifth consecutive score in the Diana and sixth overall. Named a 'TDN Rising Star' for her impressive debut victory at Belmont three seasons ago, the e Five Racing Thoroughbreds colorbearer backed that up with a victory in the GI...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--When it comes to the "what-if" questions, Blue Heaven Farm's 7-year-old champion mare Starship Jubilee (Indy Wind), who is headed to the GI Diana S. Sunday, is in a league of her own. There are so many possibilities for the Florida-bred, who has won eight graded stakes, including the 2019 GI E.P. Taylor on her home track at Woodbine. For example: - What if trainer Kevin Attard and his partner Soli Mehta had not won the three-way shake when they claimed the then-undistinguished 4-year-old for $16,000 in February...