Diana Stakes (Grade 1)

CHAD Brown notched up another Grade 1 turf prize when Rushing Fall proved a courageous winner of the Grade 1 Diana Stakes on the turf at Saratoga last Sunday.

The five-year-old More Than Ready mare had finished second in last year’s Diana, and held off the Graham Motion-trained Mean Mary after a stretch duel to win by a neck.

“She knows how to win. She’s a remarkable horse. This is a horse that has won Grade 1s in four straight years. This is very rare company to do this. She’s a horse of a lifetime for anybody – for an owner, for a trainer, for racing. We’re very fortunate that (owner) Bob Edwards put her back in training,” trainer Chad Brown said afterwards.

Rushing Fall was away well under jockey Javier Castellano and led as Mean Mary moved quickly up and took over to lead the field into the first turn.

Mean Mary continued to lead along the backstretch and increased her lead over a length ahead of Rushing Fall as Sistercharlie brought up the rear of the five runners.

As they entered the final turn, Rushing Fall and Mean Mary still matched strides and battled all the way to the wire. Rushing Fall’s better turn of foot just edged Graham Motion’s tough Mean Mary in the final strides to win by a neck in a final time of 1m 45.88secs.

“She doesn’t have to be on the lead, she can come from behind also, but I didn’t see much other speed in the race, so we tracked the other filly every single step of the way. She knows how to win. I’m so lucky to ride her because she’s one of the best fillies I’ve rode in my life,” Castellano said.

Sistercharlie, who beat Rushing Fall in last year’s Diana, managed to take third but was never nearer than the two and a half lengths.

Chad Brown said he was pleased with the effort and she was still on course for a start in the Breeders’ Cup.

“I thought she took a nice step forward towards the Breeders’ Cup. This course is very speed-favouring. It’s hard to imagine a scenario, no matter what the pace is, where she is going to be able to make up that much ground. I was disappointed that she wasn’t right there at the wire but not discouraged that she can’t get on track for the Breeders’ Cup,” he said.

Rushing Fall is three from three for 2020, having won the Grade 3 Beaugay Stakes at Belmont Park in June and the July 11th Grade 1 Coolmore Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland.