THE first weekend of Saratoga’s summer season saw Chad Brown continue his domination of the Group 1 Diana Stakes which he had won six of the last seven runnings.

Peter Brant’s In Italian set a record for nine furlongs over the turf course at Saratoga Race Course in beating her stable companions Technical Analysis, Bleecker Street and Rougir as the Godolphin runner for Charlie Appleby, Creative Flair disappointed under Jamie Spencer, beaten by over 10 lengths.

In Italian, a British-bred four-year-old daughter of Dubawi, set fast fractions and maintained her advantage into the stretch, fending off a late challenge by graded stakes-winning stablemate Technical Analysis to win by a length and a half in 1m45.06secs.

“I’m very fortunate to have those four horses able to participate,” Brown said. “It’s just another memorable accomplishment for our team.”

Coming off a third in the Grade 1 Longines Just a Game, In Italian was the longest priced of the Brown four, which included Grade 1 winners Bleecker Street and Rougir. “I wouldn’t have run her if I didn’t think she had a chance to win,” Brown said afterwards. “I thought all four horses were really lined up and ready to run from whatever their individual styles were.

“In Italian just found a way to rebreak at the top of the lane and kick on, which would’ve made it hard for any horse to catch her yesterday.”

Also in the Peter Brant colours, Bleecker Street, unbeaten in seven starts, was the Diana favourite, but the daughter of Quality Road had to make up 10 lengths and finished third. Rougir, owned by Brant and Michael Tabor, was a neck back in fourth to complete the all-Brown superfecta.

Tattersalls

Both In Italian (475,000gns) and Technical Analysis (200,000gns) were purchased at the 2019 Tattersalls October Sale. “In recent years it became harder to buy horses that had already run a little bit, which we used to do more of earlier on in my career.

“We just started to have our own farm team of going and buying European-bred horses. Not every horse works out, but we’ve had tremendous success doing it and it’s something we’ll look to do more of for sure,” Brown was quoted on BloodHorse.