SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Mark Casse was the only brave soul to take on Chad Brown when entries were drawn for Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Diana Stakes and will run Fev Rover against a quartet of Brown trainees in a five-horse field for the 1 1/8-mile turf race.
Brown has won six of the last seven runnings of the Diana and won the race seven times overall in his career.
Casse said he’s not worried about who or how many are in the race, choosing to just focus on his own runner.
Giant Game could chase a giant purse next month at either Saratoga Race Course or Charles Town.
After winning the Grade 3, $300,000 Cornhusker Handicap on Saturday night at Prairie Meadows, he has a couple of seven-figure options on the immediate horizon.
"The Whitney would be possible, or the Charles Town," trainer Dale Romans said Monday. "We’ll see how he comes out of it and talk about it. We’ll figure it out."
Trainer John Sadler may have two runners in the $100,000 Oceanside Stakes for 3-year-olds on July 21 at Del Mar– the Golden Gate Fields stakes winner Game Time and recent Irish import Panic Alarm.
Game Time won the $75,000 Alcatraz Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile on turf on May 28, leading throughout for his first stakes win in his fifth appearance in such a race. Owned by Hronis Racing, Game Time earned $45,000 for the win.
Glen Hill Farm will have a small stable with trainer Tom Proctor at Del Mar this summer for the first time since 2018.
Owner Craig Bernick said Sunday that the stable plans to have approximately eight runners, many with recent starts at Gulfstream Park. The Del Mar meeting begins July 21 and continues through Sept. 10.
The group will include the fillies and mares Ocean Club, Muted, Wide West, and Paris Peacock.
Saratoga native Cherie DeVaux has won four races each of the past two Saratoga meets and she figures to be more active this summer with her continuously growing stable.
DeVaux, who is primarily based in Kentucky, has 19 stalls this summer at Saratoga. She won two races from just four starters at Belmont Park, including last Friday’s Grade 3 Manila with More Than Looks and a July 1 maiden race with Northern Invader. Both 3-year-olds earned 94 Beyer Speed Figures and could meet in the Grade 2, $500,000 National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Stakes on Aug. 5.
Luis Saez is the only jockey without the last name Ortiz to win a Saratoga riding title in the last eight years. Though he’s been largely absent from New York this year, Saez will be back in Saratoga to try and replicate his 2021 season when the 2023 meet kicks off Thursday.
Victories in the Jim Dandy and Travers Stakes in Saratoga last summer propelled the Steve Asmussen-trained Epicenter to an Eclipse Award as 3-year-old champion male.
In Disarm and Extra Anejo, Asmussen has a pair of 3-year-olds this year he’d like to get to the $1.25 million Travers on Aug. 26, the marquee event of the Saratoga meet that opens Thursday.
Danny Gargan has had limited success with 2-year-olds at Saratoga. Over the last six meetings, he has won with just 3 of 27 juvenile starters.
He is expecting for that to change this summer. Led by Dornoch, a full brother to Kentucky Derby winner Mage, Gargan has more than a dozen 2-year-olds in his care, many of whom will see action this summer at Saratoga.
“I’m in a better position with young horses than I’ve ever been in,” said Gargan, who last year won a maiden race with Champions Dream, who would win the Grade 3 Nashua at Aqueduct.
Frank Mirahmadi’s career as a full-time racetrack announcer was still in its infancy when he walked into Saratoga as a fan for the first time in 1997.
“The moment I walked into Saratoga I realized what a special place it was, what an iconic place it was,” Mirahmadi said. “When I walked in there I never thought to myself, ‘Wow, I’d like to be the race-caller here one day.’ I never thought that would even be a tiny possibility, I never even considered that to be something to even strive for, I could never picture it happening.”
Jockey Kylee Jordan, who won the riding title last year at Prairie Meadows and ranked second in the standings through Friday, has been sidelined by a dislocated shoulder. She said Friday that a timeline for her return has not yet been determined.
“I’m not sure how long I’ll be out,” said Jordan, who has seen a specialist and is undergoing physical therapy. “I want to ride, but my agent said ‘Not yet.’ I need to get as strong as I can before riding.”
