Grade 1 winners Big Blue Kitten, Dayatthespa return in stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown will bring back Grade 1 winners Big Blue Kitten and Dayatthespa in overnight stakes on Saturday’s card.

Big Blue Kitten, who won two Grade 1 races, including the Sword Dancer at 1 1/2 miles, here last year, will run in the $100,000 Lure Stakes at 1 1/16 miles. It will be his first start since he finished eighth in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf. Brown had considered bringing him back in the Grade 1 Sword Dancer here Aug. 17.

“He hasn’t run in a while,” Brown said. “To run him a mile and a half off that long of a layoff, maybe we’re better off giving him one going a little shorter. He looks sound, he looks great. To me, he looks healthy and sound, so it’s time to get him started in some sort of race.”

Big Blue Kitten will break from post 4 in a field of 12 that includes New York-bred stakes winner Kharafa and recent allowance winners Plainview and Legendary.

In the $100,000 De La Rose, for fillies and mares at one mile, Brown will bring Dayatthespa and the multiple graded stakes winner Pianist back to the races. Dayatthespa and Pianist have not run since finishing fourth and seventh in the Grade 1 Matriarch at Hollywood Park last Dec. 1.

“Both needed time off, both have been training in a nice rhythm,” Brown said. “You hate to run horses against each other – especially graded stakes winners – but as far as logical options to get horses started late in the year, they both really fit for this race.”

Dayatthespa drew post 8, with Pianist in post 7. Others entered are Alaura Michele, Baffle Me, Filimbi, Joy, Ready Signal, and Silsita.