Brown enters three in Sword Dancer, may start Fifty Five in Ballston Spa

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown entered three horses in Saturday’s Grade 1, $850,000 Sword Dancer Stakes, including Proven Reserves, who could possibly be used as a pacemaker in the 1 1/2-mile turf race.

There does not appear to be much speed in the Sword Dancer, and Brown’s other two entrants, Annals of Time and Ya Primo, do their best running from off the pace. Proven Reserves is owned by Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables, the same owner as Annals of Time, who is coming off an allowance win last time out.

Ya Primo finished second to Channel Cat in the Grade 2 Bowling Green last out, and they will meet again in the Sword Dancer. Channel Cat was a loose-on-the-lead winner of the Bowling Green, but trainer Todd Pletcher said Channel Cat utilized that style based on the way the race came up.

“I don’t think we have to have the lead,” Pletcher said.

Channel Maker, trained by Bill Mott, finished second in last year’s Sword Dancer after dead-heating for win in the Bowling Green. Sadler’s Joy won the Sword Dancer in 2017 and finished sixth in this race last year. Tiz Morning, a horse who could show speed stretching out off a third in a $50,000 claimer, Pillar Mountain, and Noble Thought round out the field.

Fifty Five may reroute to Ballston Spa

Brown will not run Rushing Fall in Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Ballston Spa Stakes, but he is likely to run Fifty Five, who will probably scratch from Friday’s $150,000 Yaddo Stakes for New York-breds.

Brown was not happy with the way Rushing Fall worked and came out of her last work, so he decided to back off her. Fifty Five had a four-race winning streak snapped when she finished second in the Dr. James Penny Memorial at Parx on July 2.

Brown also entered Significant Form, winner of the Grade 3 Intercontinental Stakes two starts back, and Mascha, a recent first-level allowance winner here on July 31. Completing the field are Hogan’s Holiday, Scottish Jig, Indian Blessing, Secret Message, Conquest Hardcandy, and Starship Jubilee, a supplemental entry.