Saratoga Picks | Test Stakes 2024

Klaravich Stables’ Grade 1-placed Ways and Means will be put to the test in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Test presented by Ticketmaster, a seven-furlong sprint for sophomore fillies, at Saratoga Race Course. 

The Test is slated as Race 8 on Saturday’s 13-race program that features the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney in Race 11. Also on the card is the Grade 1, $600,000 Saratoga Derby Invitational [Race 7], the Grade 2, $300,000 Troy [Race 10], and the Listed $135,000 Fasig-Tipton Lure [Race 9]. 

First post is 12:05 p.m. Eastern. Gates open at 10:30 a.m. Eastern.

Trained by four-time Eclipse Award-winner Chad Brown, the Practical Joke bay looks for her first graded stakes victory after an impressive 8 1/4-length win in a one-mile allowance on June 6 here. The much-the-best stalking score earned a career and field-best 104 Beyer Speed Figure. 

Ways and Means returned to the work tab on June 21 and has completed weekly half-mile breezes since. She covered the ground in a bullet 47.20 seconds over the Oklahoma dirt training track on July 20, fastest-of-58 workers at the distance, and completed the same course in 49.21 seconds Saturday. 

“She’s doing well. We’ve spaced her races out purposefully for this race,” said Brown. “She’s in a good rhythm working. Some speed in there would help her.”

In her last-out victory, Ways and Means found the winner’s circle for the first time since a dazzling 12 3/4-length debut romp sprinting six furlongs last August at Saratoga. She exited to post a troubled runner-up finish to returning foe Brightwork in the seven-furlong Grade 1 Spinaway in September, again here at Saratoga. 

Ways and Means made her sophomore debut with a runner-up finish in the 1 1/16 mile Gulfstream Parks Oaks in March at its namesake oval ahead of a fourth in the nine-furlong Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks on May 3 at Churchill Downs. 

A Kentucky homebred, Ways and Means is out of the Ontario-bred stakes winner Strong Incentive, who also produced the Brown-trained and Klaravich-owned Grade 1-victor and multiple graded stakes-winner Surge Capacity, along with graded-stakes winner Highly Motivated. 

Flavien Prat will look to engineer a winning trip from post 4. 

Dual Eclipse Award-winner Brad Cox will saddle Stonestreet Stables’ 4-for-5 Emery [post 1, Tyler Gaffalione], who rallied to capture the 6 1/2-furlong Grade 3 Victory Ride last-out on July 4 at Belmont at the Big A. 

The More Than Ready dark bay enters on a three-race win streak, including a closing score in the seven-furlong Leslie’s Lady on June 9 at Churchill. The lone loss during her career came in the one-turn mile Grade 1 Frizette in October at Belmont at the Big A, captured by eventual Champion 2-Year-Old Filly Just F Y I. 

“Classy filly, really easy to deal with. The last few months we’ve thrown a lot at her with [coming] back quick in the Victory Ride, but she responded well,” said Cox. “It is going to be a little quick back to the Test but she is doing it the right way. She’s settling into her races and finishing up.”

Cox will also send out Red White and Blue Racing’s graded stakes-winner Denim and Pearls [post 2, Irad Ortiz, Jr.] off a distant seventh as the beaten favorite in the seven-furlong Grade 2 Eight Belles on May 3 at Churchill won by returning rival My Mane Squeeze. 

Previously, the Into Mischief bay was an eye-catching 9 1/4-length winner in the seven-furlong Grade 2 Beaumont on April 7 at Keeneland, garnering a career-best 96 Beyer. Out of the graded-stakes placed Majestic Warrior mare Majestic Princess, Denim and Pearls, a $500,000 purchase at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga Select Yearling Sale, is a full-sister to Grade 1-winner Newgate. 

William Butler and WinStar Farm’s Grade 2-winning New York-bred My Mane Squeeze [post 5, Luis Saez] looks for her first top-level score after a last-out fourth in the nine-furlong Grade 1 DK Horse Acorn won by Thorpedo Anna. Trained by Mike Maker, the Audible dark bay entered off a win in the aforementioned Eight Belles over sloppy and sealed footing at the Louisville oval. 

“I think seven-eighths or one-turn miles are the perfect distance for her,” said Maker regarding the filly’s 5-for-7 record at one-mile or less. 

My Mane Squeeze’s resume features three state-bred stakes run at Aqueduct Racetrack, including the Maddie May in February and Maid of the Mist in October, both one-turn miles, with the 6 1/2-furlong Franklin Square in between in January. 

Out of the three-time winning Speightstown mare In Spite of Mama, My Mane Squeeze is a half-sister to the Maker-trained and Butler-bred graded-stakes placed Rotknee. She holds an impressive 9-5-0-2 record with $634,110 in earnings.

WSS Racing’s Grade 1-winner Brightwork [post 6, John Velazquez] is set to return from an over eight month layoff dating to an off-the-board result in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies in November at Santa Anita Park. 

Trained by John Ortiz, the Outwork bay captured a pair of local graded sprints last summer including the aforementioned Spinaway over the heavily-favored Ways and Means, plus the Grade 3 Adirondack one month prior.

After a 4-for-4 start to her career, Brightwork finished off-the-board in a pair of two-turn efforts, traveling 1 1/16 miles in the Grade 1 Darley Alcibiades in October at Keeneland before the Breeders’ Cup attempt at that same distance. 

“I think it was a little bit the distance and we did ask a lot of her. It is rare to see a 2-year-old break their maiden and make it all the way to the end of the year like that,” said Ortiz. “I’m not concerned she wouldn’t be able to get the distance eventually, I think we squeezed the lemon just a little bit too much at the end of the year.” 

Brightwork, a $95,000 weanling purchase from the 2021 Fasig-Tipton November Sale, is out of the unraced Malibu Moon mare Clarendon Fancy, who also produced stakes-placed Quiet Company. She has banked $501,376 through a 6-4-0-0 record.

Rounding out the Saratoga field is Jacks or Better Farm’s stakes-winner Belle’s Blue Bell [post 3, Joe Bravo] for trainer Carlos David. The Florida-bred Girvin bay won the six-furlong Maryfield last-out on June 29 at Monmouth Park.