Dayatthespa earns repeat victory in Yaddo Stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The $150,000 Yaddo looked like a match race on paper, and it played out that way on the inner turf course Sunday at Saratoga as Dayatthespa dictated the tempo, turned back a challenge from Discreet Marq and drew off to score a 2 1/2-length victory.

Dayatthespa was winning the Yaddo, a 1 1/16-mile turf race for New York-bred fillies and mares, for the second year in a row. It was also the fourth straight season she has won a race at Saratoga for trainer Chad Brown.

In 2012, Dayatthespa won the Riskaverse Stakes, and in 2011, she came home a winner in a statebred maiden race while making her career debut.

"To have a horse win four straight years at Saratoga is remarkable and very rewarding to me personally," Brown said.

Dayatthespa, now 5, had been cross-entered in the Grade 2 Ballston Spa on Saturday, but Brown and his owners picked the Yaddo for several reasons.

"I think this race set up better for her, and the turf was firmer," Brown said.

Dayatthespa went right to the lead in the Yaddo under jockey Javier Castellano and set fractions of 24.39 seconds, 48.54, and 1:12.83 while being stalked by Discreet Marq. Dayatthespa turned back Discreet Marq's best bid in upper stretch and was well clear at the end.

Discreet Marq, a Grade 1 winner of more than $900,000, lunged forward and hit the gate as it was opening to get away awkwardly but had a smooth trip thereafter. She held second by 1 1/2 lengths over the third-place finisher Effie Trinket.

Dayatthespa completed the 1 1/16 miles in 1:41.93 and paid $4.60 to win as the second choice. The exacta with the 6-5 favorite Discreet Marq returned $7.30.

Dayatthespa has now won nine of 16 career starts, including the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland as a 3-year-old. The $90,000 she earned Saturday pushed her career earnings to more $948,892 for owners Jerry Frankel, Ronald Frankel, Steve Laymon, and Bradley Thoroughbreds.

The Yaddo was Dayatthespa's second start following an eight-month layoff. After her victory in last year's Yaddo, Dayatthespa was sent to Keeneland, where she finished second, beaten a head, in the Grade 1 First Lady. She will target that race again.

"Our real goal for bringing her back is the First Lady at Keeneland," Brown said. "We penciled that race in and then worked backwards.”

The Grade 1, $400,000 First Lady is a mile turf race Oct. 4.

Dayatthespa went to the Matriarch at Hollywood Park following the First Lady. She finished fourth but came out of the race needing time off.

"She came out of the Matriarch last year with bone bruising all over," Brown said. "She needed time, there was no surgery, and we gave her as much rest as she required. It was really the first time I stopped on her for an extended period, and the time has done her well."