SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The question, using both history and form analysis as a guide, is not whether trainer Chad Brown will win the Just a Game Stakes on Saturday at Saratoga, but with whom. Brown won his first Just a Game with Antonoe in 2017. He has won every Just a Game since, save for 2022, when Charlie Appleby and Godolphin swept the top two placings. Antonoe paid $8.20 to win, second choice behind favored Roca Rojo, also trained by Brown. Therein lies another trend. Brown has saddled the favorite in all eight of his Just a Games, but only two of those favorites have won: Rushing Fall at 7-10 in 2019 and In Italian at 1-5 in 2023. Last year, Dynamic Pricing at 10-1 held off 8-5 favorite Excellent Truth, though a sodden course benefited Dynamic Pricing, who thrives under such conditions. A tepid sixth at 19-1 that day was Segesta. She’s the 7-5 morning-line favorite for this year’s Grade 1, $500,000 Just a Game, a two-turn mile that lured eight entrants, among them Brown’s second runner, the lightly raced and highly promising Sandtrap. :: DRF Belmont Stakes Packages: Save big on PPs, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and more. The 4-year-old Brown fillies, Sandtrap on the inside in post 2, break from adjacent stalls. Drawn on the fence is likely pacesetter Classic Q, one of two, along with And One More Time, for trainer Mark Casse. Trainer Francis-Henri Graffard sends Mandanaba, so far not quite up to Group 1-winning snuff in France. One would imagine the connections of Fast Market, Buttercream Babe, and Deep Satin would be delighted just sneaking into a Grade 1 placing. Mandanaba brings creditable credentials as well as a jockey little known in America, Clement Lecoeuvre, who had four Breeders’ Cup mounts between 2018 and 2020 but has not ridden before or since in North America. He also has not yet ridden Mandanaba, a filly who’s not a simple ride. Mandanaba has at times been her own worst enemy, pulling much too hard and declining to settle, though she relaxed more than usual finishing third with a good trip in the French 1000 Guineas. In the French Oaks, Mandanaba pulled very hard and was difficult to control in the first quarter-mile. Even so, she burst to the front and held a lead with a furlong remaining, staying on for fourth in a 1 5/16-mile race beyond her best distance. She then refused to switch off, running well below form in the Group 1 Prix Rothschild, after which Graffard pulled the plug on her campaign. But while Mandanaba tried to get keen in her April 23 comeback, she settled soon enough, and in her most professional race yet, beat Group 2 winner Godspeed by a neck. Both Casse horses led in recent starts, but Classic Q is the one with more natural pace. “And One More Time has speed, but not Classic Q speed,” Casse said. “I see Classic Q on the lead.” :: Bet the Belmont Stakes with confidence! Betting Strategies by Mike Beer and David Aragona feature exclusive wager recommendations! Four-year-old Classic Q has tended toward the hot side but has become less fired up with maturity. The 88 Beyer Speed Figure she earned winning the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile last month at Churchill, where she held on by a neck over the Brown-trained Portfolio Duration, doesn’t quite do that performance justice. Segesta’s dam is Antonoe, Brown’s first Just a Game winner, and while the 5-year-old lacks her mother’s explosive kick, she’s won consecutive Grade 1s and has improved throughout her career. Brown has targeted this race all year, and while Segesta was saved by the wire dead-heating for first in the Jenny Wiley at Keeneland in April, Brown said Segesta merely tired returning from a winter break. Expect her to improve. Sandtrap probably will be overbet, but that’s because she’s so exciting. She came to Brown at Payson Park in late January, and Brown has hope that, by year’s end, she’s somewhere near the head of this division. Sandtrap’s breezes, all on dirt, offer ample support for that hope. “She’s a very good work horse,” Brown said. Her debut at age 2, in a Salisbury maiden in England, could hardly have looked flashier. In her second outing, the Prix des Reservoirs at Deauville, Sandtrap went favored over the mighty Gezora. Sandtrap finished a well-beaten second, but bottomless going almost certainly blunted her brilliance that day. It took victorious Gezora an exceedingly slow 1:51.20 to cover one mile. Brown picked out an easy spot, a first-level Aqueduct allowance, as a Just a Game prep, and after belatedly changing leads – she has changed on cue in morning works – Sandtrap produced the sort of explosive turn of foot that could win Brown a ninth Just a Game. :: Get an edge with DRF Clocker Reports straight from the morning workouts. Available each race day at Saratoga.