Significant Form comes out on top in blanket Ballston Spa finish

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Significant Form, one of three horses in the nine-horse Ballston Spa for trainer Chad Brown, used a late surge in the stretch to emerge as the winner of a four-horse photo at the end of the 1 1/16-mile turf race, earning her first Grade 2 win.

Significant Form, a 4-year-old filly owned by Stephanie Seymour Brant, was considered the third-stringer for the Brown stable in the Ballston Spa field. But she got the money at the end, winning by a neck after passing the longshot Conquest Hardcandy late among a surge of horses at the wire.

The Ballston Spa was the fourth win out of 11 lifetime starts for Significant Form, who was stretching out from a fifth-place finish in the 5 1/2-furlong Caress Stakes on the turf in her last start. Earlier in the week, Brown had said that the attempt at a turf sprint was a mistake, and he was glad to see Significant Form make amends in the Ballston Spa.

“I don’t know if she got anything out of it, but it didn’t screw her up, so that’s good,” Brown said after the Ballston Spa, in reference to the Caress.

Significant Form went off at 7-1, the highest-priced of Brown’s horses in the race, and returned $16.60 to win. Fifty Five, another Brown trainee who had been running extremely well in restricted stakes for New York-bred fillies, went off at 7-2 and finished fourth, while favored Mascha finished last after enduring a troubled trip.

Indian Blessing, a European import trained by Ed Walker, was on the bad end of the photo, getting passed in the shadow of the wire after making her own surge to the lead. Starship Jubilee, who was shipped to Saratoga from Woodbine for the Ballston Spa by trainer Kevin Attard, also was closing furiously, beaten a neck for second and only a nose in front of Fifty Five.

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Significant Form ran the 1 1/16 miles in 1:41.39. The longshot Conquest Hardcandy set all the pace, and she finished fifth, beaten less than a length.

John Velazquez, the Saratoga stalwart, was the winning rider. It was his first mount on Significant Form, but he got the call after Irad Ortiz elected to ride Mascha. Ortiz had ridden Mascha in her lone North American start, a creditable allowance win on July 31.

“They told me she was a nice horse, and they were right about it,” Velazquez said. “The way she ran down the lane, she responded right away and showed great fight.”

Brown said that the Ballston Spa was “not the plan” for either Fifty Five or Significant Form, but that his owners wanted to run. Earlier in the week, Brown had scratched Rushing Fall, a multiple graded stakes winner, from consideration in the race, opening it up for some of his other turf fillies.

“I’m happy we put them both in here,” he said. “It all worked out.”