By Duane Fonseca
A year after winning the Grade 1 Diana Stakes on the line by a whisker, Juddmonte-owned Whitebeam defended her honour with a commanding frontrunning success to bring trainer Chad Brown a 150th top-tier success.
Flavien Prat and Whitebeam reconvened at Saratoga five weeks after finishing half a length in arrears to Chili Flag in the Grade 1 Just A Game over the shorter 1600m circuit at the same venue on June 7. But there wasn’t going to be a repeat here and the pair were able to easily swat aside the rest of their nine rivals, Chili Flag included, in the 1800m fillies and mares affair.
A five-year-old daughter of Caravaggio, Whitebeam had placed second on her seasonal bow in the Grade 3 Beaugay Stakes at Aqueduct in May under Irad Ortiz Jr. as she looked to rebound to winning ways after finishing fourth in two starts in top tier company since winning last year’s Diana, also under Prat.
And after the gates flew open, Whitebeam cantered to the front alongside Ignacio Correras IV’s race-favourite Didia, who was looking to win her second-straight North American Grade 1 after claiming last month’s New York Stakes over the marginally longer 1900m strip here. With Jose Ortiz deciding to sit off the pace on the back of Didia, Prat was able to hit the front on Whitebeam, whose reserves of energy showed in the battle of the homestretch when the rest laid down their challenges only to find themselves fighting for the minor spots as the winner crossed the line with plenty left in the tank.
Kevin Attard’s Moira placed three quarters of a length back in second under Tyler Gaffalione, while Whitebeam’s stablemate Gina Romantica was a nose behind in third for Brown and Manuel Franco.
Victory was a record ninth success for Brown, who said: “It means a lot to me. It means a lot to my team.
“There's a very short list of races when I left [as assistant to Bobby] Frankel that it was just instilled in me that he held in high regard and pointed towards. The Diana was way up on that list. For him to hold it in high regard, it really must have meant something. So, I thought if I ever had good enough horses, this is a race I really need to focus on because he's not wrong much. I'm very fortunate to have horses good enough to run in this race, really.”
Prat added: “Very proud of her effort today. Everything went well the first part of the race and when I squeezed her, she was there for me. Nothing more you can ask for. She is one of the best mares in the country and it was great.”
Brown enjoyed a Graded race double on the card as Whitebeam’s success followed Carl Spackler’s half-length win in the four-horse G3 Kelso Stakes under Gaffalione, where the Lope De Vega colt got the better of Todd Pletcher’s Talk Of The Nation.
The other Graded affair on the card, the G2 Sanford Stakes was won by the Jeremiah Englehart-schooled Mo Plex, who won the 1200m sprint under Irad Ortiz by a length from Studlydoright, trained by John Robb and ridden by Xavier Perez.
