Diana Defense- Diana Stakes Recap

Whitebeam wires four stablemates and five others in Grade 1

Five became one. 

The first 49 seconds of the Grade 1 Diana cut Chad Brown’s five-horse arsenal to a one-horse hope at Saratoga Race Course Saturday. Whitebeam loped through the first half-mile in :49.49. The lone leader sunk the four closers. 

“I had these five horses and I eliminated four of them by going in :49 so it was all on this one, right?” Brown said, walking down the steps toward the winner’s circle after the Diana victory. “The others were all closers. When you have a loose speed horse as one of your five, now you’ve bet it all on one of them.”

All you need is one. 

As Whitebeam and jockey Flavien Prat dawdled through the first half mile of the 1 1/8-mile turf stakes, Browns’ closers Gina Romantica, Coppice, Fluffy Socks and Chili Flag were stifled. 

Favorite Didia and Jose Ortiz looked anything but stifled, stalking from the rail like a mountain lion on a ledge. Brown was confident in Whitebeam but worried about Didia.

“Didia is a tough customer and Jose’s in career form,” Brown said of the Grade 1 winner and her multiple Eclipse Award-winning jockey. “I just felt like sooner or later, if she could get out, she would come at us.”

Didia churned. Whitebeam stretched. And Brown secured his ninth Diana win in the last 14 years. 

Owned and bred by Juddmonte Farm, the daughter of Caravaggio won for the first time since upsetting last year’s Diana by a nose over stablemate In Italian. That day, she settled off the pace in third and won by a nose. This year’s version proved far simpler as she held off Canadian shipper Moira by three quarters of a length. Gina Romantica closed to finish a nose behind in third. Didia finished fourth, beaten 1 1/4 lengths after 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.14. 

“We always thought she was a good filly. Last year, In Italian was the favorite but she was able to run her down and today she proved again that she’s a good filly. The trip was different but at the end of the day, she just gets the job done,” Prat said. “The game plan was to go to the lead, obviously things can change but she jumped well out of the gate. She usually has great tactical speed so, yeah, it was the game plan.”

The game plan worked for Prat. And nobody else. 

Brown conferred and commiserated with his jockeys after the race. 

“I had a tough trip. Probably the best horse,” Frankie Dettori said after finishing fifth on Coppice. “No pace. Couldn’t get out.”

“No pace at all,” said Irad Ortiz Jr., ninth aboard Chili Flag.

“Not enough pace,” said Joel Rosario, eighth on Fluffy Socks. 

The only who didn’t lament the pace scenario was Manny Franco, who just missed second with Gina Romantica. 

“I (screwed) it up, I didn’t finish second,” Franco said. “She ran big.”

Brown wasn’t hearing that. 

“No, you didn’t, you got the worst bob, you were in front again. I thought you rode a great race,” Brown said. “You other three were just paced out of the race. I was just (saying) I had to focus everything on the leader because all my closers were taken out of the game.”

Paceless races provide close finishes, 4 1/2 lengths separated Whitebeam in first and Chili Flag in ninth.  

Bred in Great Britain, Whitebeam won three of six starts for Harry and Roger Charlton in 2022. Sent to Brown after her 3-year-old season, Whitebeam just missed by a neck in the Plenty Of Grace at Aqueduct, won the Grade 3 Galorette at Pimlico Race Course before winning a five-horse rumble in last year’s Diana. She finished fourth in the Grade 1 First Lady and Grade 1 Matriarch to complete her 4-year-old season. With a Grade 1 stakes win already on her resume, Whitebeam could have easily joined the blue-blooded broodmare band of one the sport’s most iconic breeders. 

“I really want to thank the Prince’s family for keeping her in training,” Brown said of the late Prince Khalid Abdullah. “She’s already a Grade 1 winner. She’s a very well-bred horse. They could have easily retired the horse, but they really wanted to see her run this year. They were nice enough to return her into training to me and my team. I’m so appreciative to them.”

Whitebeam began this season with a neck loss to Neecie Marie in the Grade 3 Beaugay at Aqueduct and a half-length loss to Chili Flag in the Grade 1 Just A Game at Saratoga. The Diana was always the goal. Whitebeam joined Sistercharlie, Forever Together, Glowing Honor, Shuvee, Tempted and Miss Grillo as the only back-to-back winners since the Diana began in 1939. The latter three did the double at 1 1/8 miles on the dirt. 

“It’s a rare feat. It’s definitely a rare feat. Sistercharlie did it for me. She’s in rare company. I know that she had things her own way on the front today, but if you look at her form, she’s been a pretty consistent horse every year,” Brown said. “I was cautiously optimistic she would run her best race of the year the way she had been training since her last race. It’s really how her year started off last year, she needed one run to sort of get going and she got better as the year went on.”

Hey Chad, what distance is next for Whitebeam?

“One thing with stretching her out, she would get an easy lead. I have found with older horses, turf horses in particular, you can get a little extra distance as they get older. Horses like Stephanie’s Kitten was a miler, Dayatthespa was a miler. It’s a little apples to oranges with this horse but you get the point. I was able to get more distance out of them as 5-year-olds.”

Hey Flavien, you’re up by two over Irad Ortiz Jr., do you dare think about being leading jockey at Saratoga?

“Listen, it’s only the fourth day and it’s a long meet. Saratoga in the summer is probably the best meet. There are a lot of good horses, and you ride with a great colony of riders, and I have the opportunity of riding for great connections. I just want to have a good meet, win races and just ride good races.”

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