Deep edition of Ballerina a tasty Breeders' Cup appetizer
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – They’ll run the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Keeneland in two months, but that race may be hard-pressed to be as deep as Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Ballerina Stakes at Saratoga.
Most, if not all, of the top older female sprinters appear in the Ballerina, which offers a fees-paid berth into the BC Filly and Mare Sprint. Five of the 12 entered are Grade 1 winners and the field has totaled 30 stakes wins, 19 graded.
Ways and Means, trained by Chad Brown, figures a slight favorite. The 5-year-old mare has not run since her hard-fought nose victory over the now-retired Grand Job in the Grade 2 Bed o’ Roses Stakes here on June 5. That was the fifth victory in six races over Saratoga’s main track for Ways and Means, whose victories here include the Grade 1 Test in 2024.
Ways and Means was purposely held out of the Grade 2 Honorable Miss run here on July 26. Brown has the Ballerina and BC Filly and Mare Sprint on Oct. 31 at Keeneland as his primary objectives.
“I’m very pleased with my decision not to run in the race in the middle,” Brown said. “I don’t think that would have done anything to help her. Is she dealing with a little bit of a layoff now? Yeah, but she’s run so well fresh.”
Ways and Means, who can be effective stalking, will break from post 7 under Flavien Prat.
“She’s versatile as far as she likes to rate and be out in the clear,” Brown said.
Eclatant, a daughter of Into Mischief trained by Brad Cox, is 3 for 3 this year, including a nose victory over Grand Job in the Grade 1 Madison and a head victory over Foie Gras in the Grade 2 Chicago Stakes at Churchill Downs on June 20.
In the Chicago, which came after Eclatant had posted triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures in her first two starts of 2026, Eclatant needed the length of the stretch to get by Foie Gras after being caught behind a wall of horses just before the eighth pole.
“I thought she ran her race,” said Blake Cox, an assistant to his father, Brad. “[Foie Gras] was pretty tough but she grinded it out after getting stuck inside. Her first two efforts were very good efforts and we’re hoping to add another Grade 1 to her résumé.”
Manny Franco picks up the mount for the injured Irad Ortiz Jr.
Saffie Joseph Jr. entered three, topped by R Disaster, who beat Ways and Means and Ballerina entrant Usha in the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff on May 2 but hasn’t run since. Also in the Derby City Distaff was Splendora, last year’s BC Filly and Mare Sprint winner who has now won two route stakes.
Joseph said R Disaster had a little setback after the Derby City Distaff that forced him to miss the Honorable Miss.
“It’s not ideal to go into a Grade 1 off of a layoff but she has run well fresh with minimal works,” Joseph said. “She did it at Gulfstream when she ran second in a wicked speed duel in the [2025] Hurricane Bertie. It’s a tough task, but she’s in good form.”
Paradise City is coming off a victory in the Saylorville Stakes on July 18.
“She needs to improve, but the pace flow kind of helps her,” Joseph said. “She likes to be covered up, she likes to be ridden like a turf horse. If they go fast enough, she has a high-cruising speed. We’re trying to pick up a placing with her, maybe she might pick up all of it.”
Grammy Girl, Joseph’s third entrant, comes out of a 10 1/2-length defeat to Maida in the Alma North. Maida came out of that race to win the Grade 2 Honorable Miss, her fifth win from seven career starts, and is back in this spot.
Trainer Rusty Arnold has both Echo Sound and Kilwin entered in the Ballerina. Both fillies won graded stakes at Saratoga last year and both have won listed stakes in their lone starts of this year.
Echo Sound, breaking from the rail, could be part of the pace, which is likely to include Kappa Kappa, winner of the Grade 2 Raven Run at Keeneland last fall, and Maida.
Beauty Reigns looms a live longshot in the Ballerina. She was beaten three lengths when fifth to Eclatant in the Chicago but came back to win a seven-furlong allowance race here on July 23.
Munnings Express, trained by Linda Rice, beat Usha, trained by Bob Baffert, when those New York-bred females finished one-three in the Johnstone Stakes here on Aug. 5. Baffert is adding blinkers to Usha, who won the Grade 1 La Brea at Santa Anita last December.
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