Kathynmarissa, Grade 3 winner and $1.6 million earner with five wins. Segesta, a Grade 1 winner and fifth-generation homebred for racing royalty with $1.5 million on her scorecard. Portfolio Duration, Grade 1 winner who is a neck and a head from being undefeated in five lifetime starts. Dynamic Pricing, Grade 1 winner with five wins and $981,813 earned.
Pick one. OK, pick four.
Trainer Chad Brown takes that quartet into today’s Grade 1 Diana Stakes at Saratoga Race Course and won’t make a choice or trade places with anyone while seeking a record-extending 11th victory in the 1 1/8-mile turf stakes.
“I like my lineup, they’re all different and we’ll see,” he said Friday morning. “I kind of like where the trips fall, they’re all healthy, and I think they’re settling into their campaigns at the right time.”
The morning-line favorite at 2-1, Kathynmarissa makes her third start of 2026 for Michael Dubb and Michael Caruso and exits a third behind Portfolio Duration in the Grade 1 New York at 1 3/16 miles here June 5. In her seasonal debut, she captured the Grade 3 Modesty at Churchill Downs May 1.
Brown thinks that Modesty effort, her first start since August 2025, sapped some of the American Pharoah mare’s reserves for the New York and expects to see a return to her best in the Diana from post three for jockey Jose Ortiz.
Juddmonte Farm’s Segesta, the 3-1 third choice, follows a similar form cycle as she started 2026 with a Grade 1 score in the Jenny Wiley at Keeneland in April. In her first start since November, the daughter of Ghostzapper wound up in a dead heat with Expensive Queen after a three-way stretch battle that included Medoro. Out of that effort, Segesta finished third in the Grade 1 Just A Game going a mile at Saratoga June 6.
Neither 5-year-old was disgraced in the defeats, Brown just thinks they felt the first race off the bench.
“Those two horses are pretty much in the same boat,” he said. “They both ran huge races off long layoffs and both of them, I think, felt that race a little bit. They maybe could have used a little more recovery time. I see both horses coming back to those races that they ran off the layoff – what they’re doing, how they’re working, I see their energy level back, and I can see them settling into their campaign, third start of the year. Sometimes they run so big they just react a little bit. I had a good idea they were going to run well off the layoff. It’s harder to predict how they react to that.”
From post six for Dylan Davis, Segesta gets back to 1 1/8 miles, where she’s won twice – the Grade 3 Matchmaker last year and the Grade 2 Wonder Again in 2024.
“She’s bumping back out to the mile-and-an-eighth and she has two wins,” Brown said. “They’re not Grade 1 mile-and-an-eighths, but she has won twice at the distance.”
Klaravich Stable’s Portfolio Duration makes her debut at the distance, though she’s won at every trip she’s tried – 1 mile, 1 1/16 and 1 3/16. Bred in England and purchased at Tattersalls as a yearling, the daughter of Night Of Thunder won her 2025 start (a maiden at Tampa Bay Downs) and opened 2026 with a lopsided first-level allowance score. She finished second to Classic Q in the Churchill Downs Distaff Turf Mile May 2 and then won a throwdown with French invader Cankoura in the 1 3/16-mile New York at Saratoga.
“She showed a new dimension going to the lead,” Brown said. “We’re trying a slight cutback, and she could still be on the lead here. Between her and Segesta, one of them could end up on the lead, but she’s a pretty versatile horse. If there’s some moisture in the ground, she can handle it no problem. She’s been effective on firm as well, and she’s got good early pace. She doesn’t need to lead. She did it last time, but she’s fine with a target.”
Manny Franco rides the 5-2 third choice from post four.
Most of Saratoga if not the East Coast would like some rain to roll in – for the flowers, the lawns, the wells, the Canadian wildfires and even the horses. Irish-bred Dynamic Pricing would do a rain dance if she could as she’s 2-for-2 on yielding turf including a Grade 1 score here last year in the Just A Game.
The 5-year-old mare, also by Night Of Thunder, opened 2026 with a fourth in the Jenny Wiley and was second in the Grade 3 Beaugay at Aqueduct May 3. Brown likes everything about her going into the Diana, other than the turf condition – though Saturday afternoon’s forecast includes rain. The Diana goes at 2:46 p.m. as the fifth race.
“She’s doing really well, she needs softer ground and I’m not sure when the rain will start,” Brown said. “She’s way more effective on the softer ground, so for her it’d be nice if there’s some weather. She needs some give in the ground. It’s going to come down to the ground for her. That’s her best friend and it’s super firm.”
Rain or not, Edgard Zayas rides from the inside post at 6-1.
Amo Racing’s Cathedral shipped over from England for the Diana and might appreciate similar conditions though she was fourth in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf on firm ground at Del Mar. The 4-year-old daughter of Too Darn Hot rides a 10-race losing streak after winning her debut in 2024, but has placed in a French Group 3 and a British Group 2. Ricardo Sanatana Jr. rides from post two at 6-1.
Irish-bred Ozara leads the field with eight wins and is 3-for-3 at Saratoga for Cheyenne Stable. She won her debut in 2023 for Christophe Clement and won twice here last summer for the late trainer’s son Miguel – the restricted De La Rose Stakes and the Grade 2 Ballston Spa.
Those races earned her Grade 1 tries in the First Lady at Keeneland (eighth) in October and Matriarch at Del Mar (seventh) in November. The daughter of Lope de Vega opened 2026 with a victory in Monmouth Park’s Miss Liberty May 30, but finished sixth after being 11th early in the Grade 3 Royal North at Woodbine in Canada June 27.
Clement said her Diana will depend on the trip jockey Jaime Rodriguez works out from the outside post.
“It’s very much a tale of a trip; if she gets a good trip, she always delivers and runs well,” he said. “He needs to work out a good stalking trip, a good forward-placed trip. She can do one, two three. Every time they take her further back – Canada, draw a line; Matriarch, draw a line; Keeneland, draw a line. Every time she’s at the back, she doesn’t run well. Every time you’re forward-placed, she runs great.”
Ozara has never run farther than 1 1/16 miles, but Clement won’t sweat the distance for the 5-year-old, an earner of $667,939 since being purchased at Tattersalls as a yearling in 2022.
“She’s very switched off, that’s not a problem, she loves Saratoga, and as long as there’s a good pace, she’ll be fine,” Clement said. “She just needs to be at a forward position. My only instruction to Jaime is to go forward. She’s a very talented mare.”
New York-bred Five G, also entered in Monmouth Park’s Matchmaker Saturday, completes the field at 20-1 for Gatsas Stable, trainer George Weaver and jockey John Velazquez. The daughter of Vekoma won a Grade 2 last year and was third in the Mt. Vernon for state-breds at Saratoga June 3.
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