SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY — She would have been the likely favorite in next Saturday's $500,000 GI Ballerina Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. But that point is moot now.
'TDN Rising Star' Ways and Means (Practical Joke) won't run.
Trainer Chad Brown delivered the news Thursday morning at his barn on the Oklahoma Training Track.
“Unfortunately, she got sick,” Brown said, sitting at his desk in his office. “She's sick, she's not running. Next question. There is nothing to talk about. She's going to miss the race.”
Brown was forced to miss a work last week with Ways and Means after she spiked a temperature.
Brown's glumness over the situation is understandable. Ways and Means, who is owned by Seth Klarman's Klaravich Stables, has done some of her best work at Saratoga.
She has won four of five career starts at Saratoga, including last year's GI Test Stakes and her latest start, the GII Bed of Roses Stakes on June 6.
Both of those races came at seven furlongs, the same distance as the Ballerina.
Ways and Means has earned $997,500 in her career and $618,250 has come in her Saratoga starts.
The only time Ways and Means got beat at Saratoga was in last year's GI Spinaway Stakes when she was defeated by Brightwork (Outwork) by a half-length. Brightwork is expected to run in the Ballerina.
In her 10 race-career, Ways and Means has five wins, two seconds and a third. She has gone off the favorite in nine of those starts. The only time she was not the favorite was in last year's GI Kentucky Oaks when she went off at nearly 6-1.
She finished fourth in that race.
Despite this setback, Brown will be busy enough on Travers Day.
He is pointing 'TDN Rising Star' Strategic Focus (Gun Runner) to the $1.25-million GI Travers Stakes. He finished third in his last start, the Curlin Stakes, as the 3-5 favorite. He is also owned by Klaravich.
'Rising Star' Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie), who won the Curlin at 4-1 odds for Flanagan Racing, is being targeted to the $500,000 GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes at seven furlongs.
Brown has two 5-year-old mares being pointed to the $500,000 GI Personal Ensign Stakes at 1 1/8 miles. Raging Sea (Curlin), the beaten favorite in the GII Shuvee Stakes at Saratoga on July 18 and Randomized (Nyquist), winner of the GIII Molly Pitcher at Monmouth on July 19, will represent his barn.
Raging Sea is owned by Alpha Delta Stables LLC and Klaravich owns Randomized. Both of those horses have won three races at Saratoga. Raging Sea won the Personal Ensign last year and Randomized finished fourth.
Rain Gave Nitrogen Her Shot at the Alabama
If the sun had shone brightly all day on Belmont Stakes Day back in June, chances are we would not be seeing Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro) in Saturday's $600,000 GI Alabama Stakes at Saratoga.
“Probably not,” dual Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse said outside his barn on the Saratoga backstretch.
When the rains came on Belmont Day, it washed the GIII Wonder Again Stakes off the turf and Nitrogen ran a mile on a sloppy track, winning by a whopping 17 lengths over two overmatched rivals.
It gave Casse an idea that maybe his talented 3-year-old filly, owned by D J Stable Inc., might have a future on dirt. Casse kept that in mind, even when Nitrogen's next start was back on the grass in the GI Belmont Oaks Invitational on July 5. She was second that day, beaten a nose by Fionn (Twirling Candy).
Had she not excelled in the off-the-turf Wonder Again, or if the race had stayed on the grass, she most likely would have run in the GI Saratoga Oaks Invitational last weekend.
Nitrogen | Sarah Andrew
But here she is and Nitrogen is the 9-5 second choice on the Alabama morning line set by NYRA oddsmaker David Aragona. Champion Good Cheer (Medaglia d'Oro), who had her seven-race winning streak snapped when she finished fifth in the GI Acorn Stakes to La Cara (Street Sense) on June 6, is the 8-5 morning-line favorite.
La Cara is also trained by Casse. She is further along than her stablemate in terms of the 3-year-old filly division as La Cara has a pair of GI wins on the dirt this year: the Acorn and the Ashland Stakes.
If Nitrogen makes some noise in the Alabama, it would be her first Grade I on dirt; overall this year she has five wins in six starts.
“I honestly think it's a no-brainer,” Casse said or running Nitrogen on the dirt. “We want to be champion 3-year-old filly and, to do that, we need to win a big one on the dirt. There are not many bigger than this one.”
Casse knows the Wonder Again could be viewed as the sloppy track and inferior competition, but he was more impressed with how fast she ran and how impressive she looked.
He has also liked the way she has worked for the Alabama–the last two breezes have been on dirt.
“I don't think there is any doubt she likes the dirt,” Casse said. “If she wins the Alabama, it puts her in a whole different atmosphere, a different league for everything.”
Romans, Berg Hoping Bobrovsky Can Cut the Lawn
In his first start, 2-year-old colt Bobrovsky (Daredevil) got beat by a nose at Churchill Downs going five furlongs on June 22.
A month later, he rolled, breaking his maiden by 10 1/2 lengths in a six-furlong race at Saratoga.
Both those races were on the dirt.
Start number three comes Saturday in the $150,000 Skidmore Stakes. Here is the rub. This race will be run on the Mellon Turf Course at 5 1/2 furlongs. Bobrovsky has never set foot on it.
Dale Romans trains the colt, who is named for Florida Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky. He co-owns him along with Steve Berg.
Bobrovsky | Sarah Andrew
“He is a very good horse,” Romans said outside his barn, sitting in a golf cart with Berg. “The question is will he like the grass?”
Berg and Romans are friends and the idea to name the horse after the Stanley Cup-winning goaltender came easily enough. Berg's full-time residence is in Florida and Romans spends the winter there.
They have both become fans of the Panthers, partly because owner Vinnie Viola also owns horses.
“I've been to a lot of games … one game every playoff series last year,” Berg said.
Neither Romans or Berg knows whether or not Bobrovsky the skater knows about Bobrovsky the horse.
“Let him win a couple more times,” Berg said about the horse, “then (Bobrovsky the hockey player) will know all about him.”
Bobrovsky is listed as 6-1 on the morning line in the eight-horse Skidmore.
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