SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Chad Brown continued his domination of the $200,000 Lake Placid Stakes on Saturday at Saratoga after Grayosh out-gamed 3-4 favorite She Feels Pretty by a neck in the Grade 2 race for 3-year-old fillies.
Brown, whose Dynamic Pricing and Spaliday finished third and fourth respectively, has now won four straight and six of the last seven 1 1/16-mile Lake Placids.
Grayosh entered the Lake Placid with only a single victory in five previous starts, although she was coming off her best performance yet when finishing second, beaten a nose by Proctor Street, under first level allowance and optional claiming conditions here earlier in the meet. Proctor Street was also entered in the Lake Placid, only to be scratched earlier in the day by trainer Brendan Walsh.
Grayosh was reserved within easy striking distance off the pacesetting Ori for the opening six furlongs of the Lake Placid while saving ground under jockey Flavien Prat. Grayosh angled off the rail and came through a narrow opening between the tiring leader and She Feels Pretty to challenge for command a furlong out, stuck her head in front at midstretch, then maintained the advantage under vigorous handling to the end.
She Feels Pretty, well placed from the outset, was sent up four wide to launch her bid leaving the final turn, lugged in briefly in early stretch, hooked up with the eventual winner in a stirring duel through the final furlong but was not quite good enough.
Dynamic Pricing, winner of the Grade 2 Edgewood Stakes earlier this season, raced in mid-pack while also saving ground for six furlongs, swung out to the middle of the track for the stretch run, rallying belatedly to finish another half-length farther back in third and three parts of a length ahead of her stablemate Spalidy, who also found her best stride a bit too late.
De Regreso, who steadied briefly behind the leaders after pressing the pace into the stretch, was pulled up just past the finish line by jockey Luis Saez, and was vanned off for precautionary reasons.
Grayosh, a 3-year-old daughter of Yoshida owned by Flanagan Racing, completed the distance over a “good” course in 1:43.74 seconds and paid $17.60.
“The more I saw her train, I treated it as a win,” Brown said of Grayosh’s frustrating loss against allowance company in her last start. “I was using it as a prep maybe for this race. I started to get past the fact she got beat and she really was training super. I just entered to take a look and when she drew so well I said let’s give it a go. I knew she could be competitive and get a piece, but she showed a lot of heart there to find more and really out-finish a good horse.”
Brown said he had “over-entered” Grayosh early in her career because he thought so highly of his young filly right from the start.
“She had a terrible spill at Gulfstream (in her second career start on March 3). She was almost put out of commission for a while, but she’s a tough filly and she bounced right back,” Brown noted. “She always trained all winter like she was a graded-level horse. She was a bit unlucky and I probably rushed her into a stakes this year.”
Grayosh gave the red-hot Prat his 10th stakes win and seventh in a graded race during the current session.
“He (Prat) took advantage of a good post, he’s a good judge of pace. Even when the leader had a lengthy advantage on the backside I was thinking, well maybe he should be a little closer and get the jump on She Feels Pretty, but he had it timed right. He rated her and took advantage of that good post and that was the difference."
Jockey John Velazquez, who rode She Feels Pretty, said he tried to get the jump on Prat and Grayosh when making his move into the stretch.
“We had a good trip, but the other horse (Grayosh) had the advantage cutting the corner in there,” Velasquez said. “I tried to get the jump on him (Prat). (She Feels Pretty) is a tough filly, but when she gets to the lead she likes to wait. She’s better off covered up and make one move, but I couldn’t do that either.”
- Additional reporting by David Grening
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