Chad Brown pegged Partisan Politics a bit of a tweener, as in in-betweener, when it came to deciding what race to pick for her debut.
The 2-year-old daughter of More Than Ready trained well, but not well enough for Brown to consider running her first time out in a 1 1/16-mile maiden race. So he opted for a 5 ½-furlong maiden race on the grass and Partisan Politics finished a game third after a wide trip.
That effort was good enough to convince Brown that not only she was ready for the 1 1/16-mile distance but the 1 1/16-mile distance in stakes company. Partisan Politics proved that she belonged in that company and became the fourth maiden to P. G. Johnson Stakes in its eight editions Wednesday at Saratoga Race Course.
“She was in between on distance,” Brown said. “They don’t write flat mile turf races here and for her she was in between 5 ½ and a mile and a sixteenth. When you’re training them, when you have a filly like Lady Eli from the other day or Tammy the Torpedo (both winners going 1 1/16 miles on the turf at this meet), I can look at them and say, ‘ok, if they train the way I want them to train we can debut at a mile and a sixteenth effectively if they’re good enough.'”
To read the rest of the P. G. Johnson recap, download Thursday’s digital edition of The Saratoga Special presented by Keeneland Sales.
