Dettori knows best; Beaute Cachee goes gate to wire to take Ballston Spa
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It was Frankie Dettori who suggested to Chad Brown that Beaute Cachee is happiest when she’s on the lead. Thursday’s Ballston Spa Stakes at Saratoga was exhibit C that the veteran jockey knows what he’s talking about.
For the third time this year Dettori put Beaute Cachee on the lead and for the third time, the duo ended up in the winner’s circle, this time holding off stablemate Gina Romantica to win the Grade 2, $300,000 Ballston Spa by a neck. It was a half-length back to Delahaye as Brown’s three runners filled out the trifecta. Brown scratched his fourth entrant, Coppice as he was not pleased with how she came out of her last workout.
Surprisingly, trained by Todd Pletcher, finished fourth.
This was the eighth time in the last 10 years that Brown had three runners in the Ballston Spa. It’s the seventh time he’s won the race under such circumstances, his eighth Ballston Spa victory overall.
Dettori said he watched Beaute Cachee’s race in last December’s Matriarch and saw how much she trouble she got into while still finishing to get third. Dettori rode Beaute Cachee for the first time in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland, put her on the lead and she upset the field at 25-1.
Dettori didn’t ride her in the Just a Game where Beaute Cachee did not make the lead and finished seventh. He was back aboard her in the Grade 3 Matchmaker, and put Beaute Cachee on the lead, and she held on by a neck.
“At Keeneland there was not much pace, I decided to control it from the front. She was a longshot, we didn’t expect her to win like that,” Dettori said. “Again, at Monmouth she showed it was no fluke. She just shows you she’s got a tremendous will to win. [Thursday], they were all keying up to come and pass me but she fended them all off.”
Beaute Cachee had a one-length lead over Delahaye through a half-mile in 49.54 seconds. Both Delahaye and then a three-wide Gina Romantica, the 4-5 favorite, came at Beaute Cachee in the lane but she held on.
Beaute Cachee, a 5-year-old daughter of Literato owned by Louis Lazzinnaro, Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, and Michael Caruso, covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.41 over good turf and returned $7.10 as the second choice.
“It was set with a clean break we’d go to the lead with this horse, Frankie figured out she’s happy there,” Brown said. “It was just a matter of sprinting home, who was going to get there. I was happy to see my three line up against each other to see who was best sprinting home. This filly just found a little bit more today.”
Brown said Beaute Cachee and Gina Romantica will head to the Grade 1, $750,000 First Lady at Keeneland on Oct. 5 where they will likely be joined by Chili Flag and Whitebeam in the one-mile stakes that Brown has won the last six years including in 2023 with Gina Romantica.
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