Brown has Gallant Bloom as bridge to Breeders' Cup for Ways and Means

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown didn’t want Ways and Means to enter next month’s Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint without having raced in 13 weeks. In Sunday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Gallant Bloom Stakes at Aqueduct, Brown appears to have found the perfect bridge race to get her to Del Mar on Nov. 2.

Ways and Means, coming off a victory in the Grade 1 Test against 3-year-old fillies, looms a heavy favorite in the Gallant Bloom, a 6 1/2-furlong race for fillies and mares that goes as race 2 on a nine-race Aqueduct card that begins at 1:05 p.m.

“It might be too long a layoff for her to the Breeders’ Cup,” Brown said about his decision to run Ways and Means Sunday.

Ways and Means, a daughter of Practical Joke, is 3 for 4 in one-turn races, topped by her 2 1/2-length victory in the Test at Saratoga on Aug. 3. Prior to that, she had won a first-level allowance by 8 1/4 lengths going a mile at Saratoga, her first start following a fourth-place finish in the Kentucky Oaks in May.

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“I pulled her back to the basics where she was good as a 2-year-old going one turn,” Brown said. “We tried to go for the Oaks. I got ahead of myself a little bit there; I didn’t have that calculated right. She is better at one turn.”

Flavien Prat will ride Ways and Means from post 3.

Trainer Bill Mott has won the Gallant Bloom three times, including with the 3-year-olds Dream Supreme and Frank’s Rockette. Last year, he won it with the 5-year-old Caramel Swirl, but only because she was the beneficiary of a double disqualification.

Sunday, Mott sends out Sterling Silver and Nic’s Style in the Gallant Bloom. It was Sterling Silver, then trained by Tom Albertrani, who was disqualified from a four-length victory in the 2023 Gallant Bloom for interference.

Albertrani has since retired and Mott took over the training of Sterling Silver in late spring for owner Mark Anderson. She enters this race off a 9 3/4-length victory in the Johnstone Mile at Saratoga on Aug. 7 against New York-breds. Irad Ortiz Jr. rides Sterling Silver from the rail.

Nic’s Style also came to Mott when Ralph Nicks – like Albertrani a former assistant to Mott – retired. Nic’s Style won a first-level allowance race at Saratoga on Aug. 17, her third win in as many career starts. Nic’s Style, who won a Florida-bred restricted allowance by 10 1/2 lengths at Gulfstream in December 2023, could be the primary speed under Junior Alvarado from post 2.

Pacific Rose, a 3-year-old daughter of Not This Time trained by Jorge Delgado, won a second-level allowance going six furlongs at Monmouth. She has yet to be successful beyond that distance.

Hot Fudge, trained by Linda Rice, is a multiple listed stakes winner over Aqueduct’s main track. In the spring, she finished third in both the Grade 3 Vagrancy and Grade 2 Bed o’ Roses.

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