Brown charts path to Breeders’ Cup for Ways and Means, Fully Subscribed
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – When it comes to the Breeders’ Cup, trainer Chad Brown hopes to continue his good fortune in one race while reversing his bad fortune in another.
By virtue of their victories in Saturday’s Grade 1 Ballerina and Grade 1 Personal Ensign, respectively, Ways and Means and Fully Subscribed earned fees-paid berths into the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint and BC Distaff. Both races will be held Oct. 31 at Keeneland.
Brown has won the Filly and Mare Sprint three times, including twice – Wavell Avenue (2015) and Goodnight Olive (2022) – when the event was held at Keeneland.
Conversely, in the Distaff, Brown is winless with 11 starters, though he has four seconds and a third.
Ways and Means could very well go favored in the Filly and Mare Sprint following her 5 1/2-length victory over a solid field in the Ballerina, for which she earned a 104 Beyer Speed Figure. It was hardly a surprise given her stellar record at Saratoga – she is now 6 for 7 here – and she had been training exceptionally well since her nose victory over Grand Job in the Grade 2 Bed o’ Roses in June.
“Got a beautiful setup in there, she really came through, she looks great this morning,” Brown said Sunday.
Since Ways and Means has shown a propensity to run well fresh, Brown will just train her up to the Breeders’ Cup. She is cataloged to be sold at the Fasig-Tipton Night of Stars auction a couple of days after the Breeders’ Cup.
“I’m excited to get her over there; she hasn’t run at Keeneland before, we’ll have to see if she can take her track with her,” Brown said.
While Ways and Means will be making her final career start, Fully Subscribed is likely to have one or two more starts this year and then race again in 2027. After finishing second in a pair of Grade 1 stakes earlier this year and then winning the Grade 2 Shuvee, Fully Subscribed gave a career-best performance winning the Personal Ensign by 9 3/4 lengths. She earned a 106 Beyer for the effort.
“We’re really seeing the best of her now, she never looked better, trained better,” Brown said. “That is a breakthrough performance for her the way she just powered away from those horses.”
Brown could use either the Grade 2 Beldame on Sept. 25 at Belmont Park or the Grade 1 Spinster on Oct. 3 at Keeneland as a way to get to the Breeders’ Cup. In the Breeders’ Cup, Fully Subscribed is likely to take on Nitrogen, last year’s 3-year-old filly champion and a filly who beat Fully Subscribed by 12 3/4 lengths in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps.
Brown’s four runner-up finishes in the Distaff included Raging Sea to overwhelming favorite Thorpedo Anna in 2024, Randomized’s half-length loss to Idiomatic in 2023, Dunbar Road’s nose defeat to longshot March Lorraine in 2021, and Wow Cat’s one-length loss to Monomoy Girl in 2018.
“When you talk about the Distaff, we’ve run really good in the race. It’s not clear to me that you have to have the favorite going in to be competitive,” Brown said.
The Ballerina and Personal Ensign were two of four wins for Brown on Saturday’s Saratoga card. He also won the Grade 2 Lake Placid for 3-year-old fillies with Naomis and a first-level allowance with the 3-year-old filly Shelzawa.
Naomis, making her stateside debut, overcame a slow pace to rally from last under Flavien Prat and win the Lake Placid by a half-length. She earned an 88 Beyer Speed Figure. Shelzawa had a much stronger pace in which to close but won by two lengths, earning an 82 Beyer Speed Figure.
Naomis will train up to the Grade 1, $750,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on Oct. 10 at Keeneland. Shelzawa will likely be pointed to the Grade 3, $200,000 Winter Memories on Sept. 27 at Belmont.
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