Didia pointing to Saratoga encore in Diana Stakes

The 6-year-old Argentine mare Didia ran the best race of her career – at least the North American part of it – winning the Grade 1 New York Stakes on June 7 at Saratoga, and Didia is going back for more.

After Didia turned in an excellent workout Wednesday morning at her Keeneland base, trainer Ignacio Correas said the mare would be shipped to Saratoga on Sunday to start there July 13 in the Grade 1 Diana.

Correas, who trains Didia for Merriebelle Stables and Resolute Racing, said shortly after the New York that Didia, all being well, would next race in the Diana or the Beverly D. Stakes on Aug. 10 at Colonial Downs. The Beverly D. now has become the backup plan.

“If the track at Saratoga is yielding or soft, I can scratch and go to the Beverly D.” Correas said.

Didia won multiple Argentine Grade 1s as a 3-year-old of 2021 and won five of her first six North American starts after joining Correas’s stable in 2022. She failed to show her best finishing 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf last fall at Santa Anita but since has hit an even higher level than during 2023 and has the BC Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar as a year-end goal.

Didia has worked three times since winning the New York by 1 1/2 lengths with a lifetime-top 100 Beyer, and her solo five-furlong move Wednesday, clocked in 1:01.40, suggests she’ll be a handful in the Diana. Didia finished up strongly under little to no encouragement and galloped out with great energy all the way to the six-furlong marker.