SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Speed, stalk, or close: Take your pick among the three Chad Brown-trained horses who are entered in Saturday’s Grade 2 Ballston Spa Stakes for fillies and mares on the turf at Saratoga Racecourse. Brown has won the Ballston Spa five times in the past seven years – he finished first, third, and fourth in last year’s edition – and once again brings a formidable trio to the five-horse field on Saturday. Technical Analysis, the likely favorite, will lead the way from the start, and it will be up to the others to run her down in the 1 1/16-mile race. Having three horses that fit so well in a race can be a problem, especially for a trainer’s owners. But Brown noted that the three have different styles and have earned their spots in the race. :: DRF's Saratoga headquarters – Stakes schedule, previews, recaps, past performances, and more “All of them are training really well, and I think all of them are really close in ability,” Brown said. “Any time I have a situation like this, I give them a chance to run their races in the right spot. Letting it get sorted out on the racetrack is the best way to do it.” Technical Analysis, an Irish-bred, has won three graded stakes and 5 of 10 races in her career. There’s no reason to think that the 4-year-old filly won’t grab the lead right from the gate. Jose Ortiz, her regular rider, will be on board. He knows the drill. Brown’s stalker is Lemista, an Irish-bred who has run in nothing but graded stakes in her six starts since being imported from Ireland to the U.S. by owner Peter Brant in 2021. She couldn’t find the winner’s circle in her first five starts Stateside, but she comes into the Ballston Spa off a win in the Grade 3 Matchmaker Stakes on July 23 at Monmouth Park. The horse that Lemista held off in the Matchmaker was her stablemate Fluffy Socks, who’s Brown’s third horse in the Ballston Spa. Fluffy Socks has made all but one of her 15 starts in turf races. Her late run has fallen short five consecutive times, going back to her third-place finish in the Grade 1 American Oaks at Santa Anita late last year. She has Irad Ortiz up for only the second time in her last nine races. “Irad knows the horse,” Brown said. “He’s worked her and ridden her before. He’s matched up well on her.” The other two entered in the field, High Opinion and Our Flash Drive, will have their work cut out for them. Our Flash Drive, trained by Mark Casse, won two graded stakes in Canada last year. Though she has some early speed, she’s faded in all of her turf starts longer than a mile, against less-accomplished horses than the Brown trio. High Opinion, a 5-year-old mare trained by Anthony Dutrow, closed furiously in the Ballston Spa last year to finish second by a nose to the Brown-trained Viadera at 8-1. She earned the best Beyer Figure of her career in that race, which featured a blistering opening quarter of 22.60. She’ll need a meltdown up top to win on Saturday.