SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – If the stretch run of last year’s Grade 1 Spinaway between Brightwork and Ways and Means is any indication, Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Test rematching the two exciting fillies should be a memorable event.
Brightwork survived a stirring stretch long duel with the 2-5 Ways and Means to notch a hard-fought half-length victory in the 2023 Spinaway. They will meet again at the same seven-furlong distance in the Test while taking on just four other 3-year-old fillies – Emery, Denim and Pearls, Belle’s Blue Bell, and My Mane Squeeze. Emery and Denim and Pearls are trained by Brad Cox.
Brightwork came into the Spinaway having won all three of her previous starts, including the Grade 3 Adirondack here four weeks earlier. Ways and Means entered the race with only one previous start under her belt, that being a dominant and well-graded 12 3/4-length triumph in her debut. It was a performance so impressive, it moved the betting public to make her the prohibitive 2-5 favorite in the Spinaway with Brightwork sent postward the 3-1 second choice despite having more experience and a Grade 3 win on her résumé.
Brightwork got the early jump on her slower-breaking rival, entered the stretch with a short advantage over Ways and Means, then dug in gamely to maintain her advantage in a thrilling battle in the Spinaway. Brightwork would start twice more at 2, finishing a tiring fifth stretching out around two turns for the first time in the Grade 1 Alcibiades before ending her juvenile campaign with a sixth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.
Surgery to remove a minor chip in her knee delayed Brightwork’s 3-year-old debut. A series of strong works both here and at Keeneland have given trainer John Ortiz enough confidence to bring her back off the bench against Ways and Means in a Grade 1 event like the prestigious Test.
“She was very mature as a 2-year-old and has really fully matured, both mentally and physically, at 3,” said Ortiz. “She’s taller, stronger, wider than she was last year. I know we’re going into a very tough spot with her coming off a layoff, but I believe she deserves a shot in this race.”
As for meeting up with Ways and Means once again, Ortiz admits the latter has the advantage the second time around having already run three times on the year.
“We ran again her last year and obviously she’s a very talented filly as well,” said Ortiz. “But my horse couldn’t be training better and is also a horse for the course, which gives me a lot of confidence as well.
“There doesn’t seem to be much speed in the field and I love her post, being on the outside. I worked her once from the gate to make sure she doesn’t balk coming out of there after the layoff and hopefully she will break nicely and can be tactically placed right from the start.”
Ways and Means came out of the Spinaway with a season-ending injury that her trainer, Chad Brown, felt occurred when she clipped heels with Brightwork in the run down the backstretch.
She finished a hard-luck second, beaten a length, after an eventful trip when launching her 3-year-old campaign in the Gulfstream Park Oaks. That was a prelude to a fourth-place finish in the Kentucky Oaks before getting back on the winning track with an extremely impressive 8 1/4-length allowance win going a mile here on June 6 for which she earned a 104 Beyer Speed Figure.
“Her last race was a nice confidence builder, the way she did it, going back to sort of one turn. We were able to get a nice, positive race out of her to move forward off,” said Brown. “Moving her back to seven-eighths seems like the right thing to do. This definitely seems like the right race for her.”
As for facing Brightwork again, Brown said he definitely respects her but doesn’t look at the Test as strictly a two-horse affair.
“[Brightwork] is a very talented and consistent filly who is coming off a layoff but has run well over the track,” said Brown. “But there are some other really nice horses inside of us as well. It might not be a big field, but it’s certainly a top-quality one and my filly is definitely going to have to run her ‘A’ race.”
Emery brings a three-race win streak into her Grade 1 debut, including a hard-fought three-quarter-length decision as the 3-5 favorite in the Grade 3 Victory Ride last month at Aqueduct.
Denim and Pearls has been freshened since finishing a disappointing seventh over a sloppy track in the Grade 2 Eight Belles on May 3 following her dominant, 9 1/4-length triumph in the Grade 2 Beaumont at Keeneland four weeks earlier.
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