If you wanted to bet one of the "other" Chad Brown-trained runners in the $500,000 Just a Game Stakes (G1T), there were plenty of "other" opportunities.
Of the seven fillies and mares in the mile turf stakes, Brown trained five of them, which computes to a 71% chance of winning.
Owner Michael Dubb had the numbers in his favor as well.
"Chad had a 71% chance of winning the race and I had a 40% chance," said Dubb, who owned a piece of two of Brown's five starters. "So, we felt pretty good going into the race."
Brown and Dubb also felt pretty good after the June 7 top-level stakes at Saratoga Race Course as Chili Flag continued her climb up the graded ladder with a half-length victory as the third choice ($10.40) in the wagering—and among Brown's five starters
"It never gets old," Dubb said about winning a grade 1 stakes at the Spa. "It's a humbling, humbling game."
Owned by Dubb, Sol Kumin's Madaket Stables, and Michael Kisber, the 5-year-old daughter of Cityscape closed from last in the field of seven to catch stablemate Whitebeam in the final strides and complete a 1-2 finish for Brown.
It was her third straight graded stakes win, coming after wins in the Honey Fox Stakes (G3T) and then the Churchill Distaff Turf Mile (G2T). Not bad for a mare who a year ago at this time was coming off a third-place finish in an allowance race to Beaute Cachee, the other Dubb/Madaket/Brown starter, also co-owned by Louis Lazzinnaro and Michael Caruso, who won the Jenny Wiley Stakes (G1T) in her prior race.
"This horse was beaten by Beaute Cachee in an allowance race last year, so I thought Beaute Cachee was the better horse. But with Chad some of them improve in increments and Chili Flag has obviously passed Beaute Cachee," Dubb said.
Brown, who captured the Just a Game for the seventh time in eight years, said he could see the improvement in Chili Flag throughout the winter as she eventually moved into graded stakes company with a sixth in the Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf Invitational Stakes (G2T), followed by her three straight graded stakes wins.
"There was a point in time last year when you wouldn't think she would be a grade 1 winner, but I'm not surprised she's had this kind of year because all winter she was showing me that she was improving. I'm so proud of her development," Brown said about a mare who beat three Brown-trained grade 1 winners in the Just a Game. "She has some move. In the past with some horses we've had, as they get older, they fine tune that last quarter-mile. You think about (the champion turf female) Uni and others who got good when they got a little older. She's starting to work her way into that group."
Evvie Jets and Juddmonte's Whitebeam battled on the front end in the Just a Game through fractions of :48.64 and 1:12.34 on wet but firm turf. Whitebeam, a homebred daughter of Caravaggio, edged to the lead in the final sixteenth but could not fend off the final bid of Chili Flag and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., who were fifth with a furlong to go.
Final time was 1:35.01.
"You have a little known secret weapon called Irad and that really helps. When Irad got hurt yesterday, I said, 'Oh, my God. What are we going to have here?' Thank God, he was OK. He's a special human being and a special jockey, but more so a special human being," Dubb said.
Ortiz was injured during the June 6 card at the Spa and taken off his mounts but returned Friday to win four races.
Whitebeam held on for second by a head over RyZan Sun Racing and Madaket Stables' Mission of Joy, a Kitten's Joy filly trained by Graham Motion. A foul claim by John Velazquez on Mission of Joy against Chili Flag for interference in the stretch was not allowed.
Chili Flag, who started her career in France before she was bought and brought to the United States by her current connections, has won 7 of 19 career starts and surpassed the $1 million mark with earnings of $1,003,377.
She was bred by Finanza Locale Consulting out of the Pivotal mare Flag Day and is her dam's first graded stakes winner.
