Rushing Fall could run in First Lady or train up to Breeders' Cup

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – On Sunday, Rushing Fall gave trainer Chad Brown his fifth straight victory and sixth win overall in Saratoga’s Grade 1 Diana Stakes. In about 10 weeks, Brown hopes Rushing Fall can give him his fifth victory in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

Rushing Fall, under Javier Castellano, outfought a stubborn Mean Mary to win the $500,000 Diana by a neck, improving her record to 3 for 3 this year and 11 for 14 in a career that began in 2017. That year, Rushing Fall won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, her first career Grade 1 win. She has now won six Grade 1’s and at least one in four consecutive years.

“I thought she showed a lot of heart and class to run down an up-and-coming horse that looks to be very legit at the Grade 1 level,” Brown said Monday morning at Saratoga. “She continues to be ultra-consistent and has put together one of the best campaigns from a female turf horse this decade if you look at her overall body of work.”

Rushing Fall, owned by Bob Edwards’s e Five Racing Thoroughbreds, and Mean Mary, trained by Graham Motion, each earned a 102 Beyer Speed Figure for the Diana.

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Brown said he’s not yet sure if he will start Rushing Fall before the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, which will be run at 1 3/16 miles on Nov. 7 at Keeneland. If she were to run again, the most likely spot would be the Grade 1 First Lady on Oct. 3 at Keeneland.

“We’ll observe how she’s doing, the timing of everything, it’s 50-50,” Brown said. “The filly will really tell us.”

Mean Mary, who was trainer Graham Motion’s sixth runner-up finish in the Diana, had a four-race winning streak snapped despite running a game race on the lead. Motion said given how hard Mean Mary runs each time he would be more inclined to train the 4-year-old filly up to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

Brown could potentially train Sistercharlie up to the Filly and Mare Turf, a race she won in 2018. She finished third in Sunday’s Diana, a race that Brown felt was an improvement over her third-place finish in the Ballston Spa last month.

◗ Mutasaabeq, an impressive debut winner here Aug. 8, worked five furlongs in 1:00.64 on Monday morning over Saratoga’s main track, in company with the unraced 2-year-old colt Mr. Briggs. Mutasaabeq is pointing to the Grade 1 Runhappy Hopeful.