Diana Stakes ( Grade 1)

THERE was little surprise that Chad Brown won the Grade 1 Diana Stakes at Saratoga last week, he had won seven runnings in the last 13 years. And he had four of the five runners.

The surprise was that the odds-on favourite In Italian succumbed to stable companion Whitebeam who got up in the final strides to win by a nose in the Juddmonte colours. Irish-bred Fev Rover outran her odds to take third.

Whitebeam, a four-year-old home-bred daughter of Caravaggio, was the outsider of the Brown runners and this was her first run in a Grade 1. She had won twice for Harry and Roger Charlton in Britain.

In Italian had won two Grade 1s this season and came into the Diana having won seven of her 11 career starts, all of them in front-running fashion.

In Italian broke well and set decent early fractions of 23.96secs, 48secs and 1m11.86secs for six furlongs. Fev Rover chased her early before dropping back and then running on again in the last furlong. Whitebeam produced a sustained run in the straight and just got the nod. The nine furlong time was 1m48.33secs.

Winning jockey Flavien Prat said afterwards: “When you turn for home and you’ve kept up with her [In Italian], you don’t know if you’ll be able to go by her, but my filly was really brave and she’s been improving.”

The Grade 3 Kelso Stakes, in memory of the famous gelding and Horse of the Year, was won the seven-year-old entire Casa Creed. A Grade 1 winner over six furlong and a mile, he was back up to the longer distance here for his first win of the season.

Casa Creed, trained by Bill Mott, settled in sixth position in the early, outside of odds-on favourite Annapolis. He made a move approaching the final turn and came round the field to take command from Big Everest. Annapolis came off the rail and attempted to follow Casa Creed and Louis Saez’s run through but he could not reel in the winner, falling short by a length in 1.35.51 secs.

The US graded two-year-old racing begins at Saratoga and the Grade 3 Sandford Stakes over six furlongs went to a shock winner in Yo Yo Candy, a Danzing Candy colt trained by Daniel Velazquez who beat the Asmussen favourite Gold Sweep by over two lengths. Saturday’s attendance at Saratoga was 31,458.

Shock in California as Golden Gates close

RACING in California received a blow last week with the announcement by owners The Stronach Group that they would close Golden Gates racecourse at the end of the year. The announced intention was to grow fields at Santa Anita, adding another day of racing to the weekly racing calendar there and “invigorate racing in Southern California”. The Stronach Group owns Santa Anita Park and the San Luis Rey Downs training centre.

It is the second major track to close down in the last three years after Arlington Park in Chicago was sold by Churchill Downs Inc to the Chicago Bears in 2021 and demolished.

ON the weekend that US racing remembered Kelso with a race in his name at Saratoga, one of the most popular geldings of recent years died in retirement at Kentucky Horse Park.

The popular 2003 Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide died from complications of colic. The son of Distorted Humor out of Belle’s Good Cide had cost only $22,000 and won $3,529,412 in 38 starts on the track for trainer Barclay Tagg and owners Sackatoga Stable. He won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness but came up short in the Belmont Stakes but was remembered for his owners, the New York school mates, Sackatoga Stables partners, who hired a yellow school bus to take them the Derby and other big races.