Brown takes three shots at fifth straight Just a Game
ELMONT, N.Y. – When it comes to the Just a Game Stakes, Chad Brown is not playing.
Brown has won the Grade 1 turf mile for fillies and mares four years in a row and has three chances Saturday to make it five straight.
Regal Glory was scratched from Thursday’s Intercontinental Stakes to join stablemates Pocket Square and Tamahere in this $500,000 race. Brown also entered Blowout, but she was scratched on Saturday morning due to a foot bruise.
The race also lost Sweet Bye and Bye who tied up after training this week and was to be scratched, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said.
Brown’s Just a Game winners, starting with last year’s, are Newspaperofrecord, Rushing Fall, A Raving Beauty, and Antonoe, and Pocket Square looks a lot like a 2021 version of Antonoe.
Like her antecedent, Pocket Square is a Juddmonte Farms homebred who was exported from Europe following her 3-year-old campaign, made her American debut scoring an eye-catching win in a second-level grass allowance race during the Keeneland meet in April, and went from there to the Just a Game.
Pocket Square, a Night of Thunder filly ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., thoroughly overmatched a decent field two months ago and has a Group 3 win over heavy ground to suggest a wet Belmont course won’t trouble her. She’s 5-1 on the track’s morning line and would be an appealing play at anything close to that price.
“I think she’ll handle anything,” Brown said, regarding course conditions. “Her first race for us was super impressive – she ran to her works, and she’s a pretty exciting prospect. It’s a big jump for her, but we’ve done this before.”
Tamahere, second to loose leader Juliet Foxtrot in a paceless edition of the Grade 1, 1 1/16-mile Jenny Wiley in April at Keeneland, beat lesser foes in the Sands Point going one mile at Belmont last summer.
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“She won’t mind a cut back and won’t mind cut in the ground, and I think there’s some improvement left there,” said Brown. “A little more pace helps her settle in, and I think if she can get off the bit, you’ll see her best race.”
Regal Glory would have been favored in the Intercontinental and faces a much tougher task in the Just a Game.
Godolphin and trainer Charlie Appleby have two entrants in Althiqa and Summer Romance, who traded decisions earlier this year in two grass stakes at Meydan. Both cut back in distance from nine furlongs to a mile, which should be fine, but only Althiqa has any experience over ground with real give to it, and connections likely were hoping for firmer turf. Last August, Althiqa finished second, handily beaten, in a moderate Group 3 in France.
New York Girl is 15-1 on the morning line and though she drew outside, in post 12, should be used in exotic wagers, if not more. Trainer Bill Mott has three Just a Game wins of his own, and New York Girl, a winner over heavy going during her 2019 campaign in Ireland, has improved steadily since she made her North American debut in December. She closed stoutly for second behind Blowout when Mott cut her back to one mile last month and should be passing horses again Saturday.
Zofelle was third in the Distaff Turf Mile and has held admirable form all year, but has no upside on the day. Always Shopping will be scratched from Friday’s New York Stakes to start here. Daddy’s Legend and Abscond complete the field.