Diana Stakes (Grade 1)

SHE Feels Pretty had been the leader of the female turf division but a damp track and the Saratoga favourite’s curse took over in the nine-furlong Grade 1. That might be unfair to trainer Chad Brown’s mare Excellent Truth who proved the toughest opponent, refusing to concede in the final furlong.

Resolute Racing’s Excellent Truth outlasted her four-time Grade 1-winning rival in the final strides for a narrow head victory, giving Brown a historic 10th victory, his fourth Diana triumph in a row and a ninth in the last 10 years.

The Irish-bred mare, by Cotai Glory, was winning her first Grade 1 after two good second Grade 1 placings this year, in the Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland and Just a Game Stakes at Saratoga.

She had raced in France up to 2024, winning a Deauville Group 3 and second in the Group 1 Prix Rothschild for Mauricio Delcher Sanchez, before selling for €1.6 million at the Arqana December Breeding Stock Sale.

Over this longer distance, Flavien Prat got the perfect position, stalking just behind Jenny Wiley winner, the Simon and Ed Crisford-trained Choisya. Prat pushed forward at the quarter pole just as She Feels Pretty and John Velazquez moved to her outside.

“Turning for home, (She Feels Pretty) took the lead on me, just outran me going into the stretch,” Prat said. “I just felt like I had more, that she wasn’t done.”

Though She Feels Pretty did hit the front, Excellent Truth dug in to fight back for a head victory in 1m47.37secs.

Just a Game winner Dynamic Pricing finished third, four and a half lengths behind. “We felt in her last couple races, as Flavien got to know her and I got to know her, she didn’t have that electric turn of foot that maybe we thought was under the hood. When we really turned her loose in a race, she took a few strides to get going. A bit more of a strong, steady run she has,” Brown said post-race.

As for She Feels Pretty, giving the winner 4lb, John Velazquez said that he felt the ground was a bit softer than the daughter of Karakontie would like.

“She was going really well until the point I put the head in front and she kind of hung a little bit.”

FAR Bridge has been one of the best turf horses in the US for two years and he had little trouble in adding another graded win in the Grade 2 Bowling Green Stakes. Miguel Clement trains the five-year-old entire following the death of his father Christophe Clement. His task was made easier by just three rivals lining up, the race run on yielding turf after rain. He tracked Tucson in the early stages, took it up after six furlongs and was never in doubt into the final straight under Joel Rosario.