SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown was looking for a confidence booster for his Grade 1-placed filly Occult and trainer Wesley Ward was hoping to get his Grade 1-winning mare Chi Town Lady back on track when both trainers entered the pair in Friday’s fourth race. Instead, they wound up hooking one another in the one-mile contest that also lured the multiple stakes-placed Movie Moxy and four-time stakes winner Stonewall Star.
Occult, who finished third in the Grade 1 Acorn and Cotillion as a 3-year-old in 2023, will drop into the allowance ranks for the first time on Friday. She has started just twice this season, finishing a troubled second as the prohibitive favorite in Monmouth Park’s Serena’s Song and fourth in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis at Churchill Downs four weeks ago.
“The first race back she had a very rough trip, just throw a line through it,” Brown said. “She trained so well coming out of that race, I took a big shot at Churchill and she ran a good race, just came up a bit short at the end. I didn’t want to run her against Raging Sea [in last Sunday’s Shuvee] and I thought it was time for a little confidence booster to prep her for something graded stakes-wise again later in the year.”
Chi Town Lady upset the Grade 1 Test here in 2022 but has registered just one victory since, taking the Minaret Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs to kick off her 2024 campaign. She returns to Saratoga Friday off fourth-place finishes in the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff and Grade 3 Chicago Stakes at Churchill Downs.
“I had her in the deep end of the pool the last couple of starts,” said Ward, “so I dropped her into what we hoped would be a little easier company, I thought, until after the race was drawn. But I love the [outside] post, she likes Saratoga, and stretching to a mile might even help her.”
As for Raging Sea, Brown said he plans to run both her and Randomized in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign on Aug. 23. Raging Sea was an impressive winner of the Grade 2 Shuvee on Sunday, while Randomized is coming off an upset victory over reigning filly and mare champion Idiomatic in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps.
“Raging Sea is back on track. She got what she needed in her last start. She ran much like she did when she won the Doubledogdare to start the year,” Brown said.
“I just wanted to give Randomized a little more time. She had a quarter crack out of her last race, but she’s doing well now. I’ve also decided to race her a little less this year since she puts a lot of energy into her races running on the front end.”
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