Excellent Truth had a rather tumultuous introduction to American racing.
Resolute Racing's Cotai Glory mare arrived here from France group 1-placed, and in her debut for trainer Chad Brown and owner John Stewart she was the 3-1 favorite in the Jenny Wiley Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland.
She wound up second by a half-length in that April 12 1 1/16-mile race, but the outcome could have been different if not for the 5-year-old mare getting shut off and steadied with a sixteenth of a mile left.
"I was really disappointed they didn't move her up. She was clearly fouled," Brown said.
Excellent Truth will try to make amends June 6 when she tops three Brown starters as the five-time Eclipse Award winner tries to extend his dominance in the $500,000 Just a Game Stakes (G1T) for older fillies and mares at Saratoga Race Course.
Brown has won the last three editions of the mile-long top-level stakes and seven of the last eight runnings—with seven different horses.
"She looks a picture of health," Brown said about Stewart's €1.6 million (approx. US$1.69 million) purchase at the 2024 Arqana December Breeding Stock Sale. "A slight cutback shouldn't hurt."
Brown will also send out Klaravich Stables' Dynamic Pricing and Juddmonte's Segesta.
Dynamic Pricing, a Night of Thunder filly, exits a season-opening win in the May 4 Beaugay Stakes (G3T).
"She's a horse you have to capture in a window. She's a high-strung horse but she's good right now," Brown said.
Segesta is coming off a fourth in the Modesty Stakes (G3T) when the daughter of Ghostzapper set the early pace.
"I entered her in the wrong race last time. A race for her was washed out and I scrambled to make a Plan B and it led me down the wrong road. A mile and an eighth off a layoff was not right for her and the mile here should suit her as it did for her mother," Brown said about the daughter of Antonoe, who was his first Just a Game winner in 2017.
A main threat to the trio figures to be Rabbah Bloodstock's Choisya, who won the Jenny Wiley in her United States debut. A group 2 winner in Dubai, she shifted out late in the Jenny Wiley, sparking a claim of foul by jockey Flavien Prat on Excellent Truth, but the result stood.
The daughter of Night of Thunder is trained by Simon Crisford.
Thomas Bachman's Kehoe Beach also returns from the Jenny Wiley, where she finished third by a length after setting the early pace. A 4-year-old daughter of Omaha Beach , the winner of 4 of 8 starts is trained by Wesley Ward.
A Lilac Rolla, also owned by Stewart, makes her first American start for trainer Bill Mott. A 4-year-old daughter of Harry Angel, she has not raced since July when she was third in the Falmouth Stakes (G1) at Newmarket for previous trainer Paddy Twomey.
Saratoga Race Course, Friday, June 6, 2025, Race 13Entries: Just a Game S. Presented by Resolute Racing (G1T)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Dynamic Pricing (IRE) Dylan Davis 122 Chad C. Brown 12/1 2 2Special Wan (IRE) Joel Rosario 120 Brendan P. Walsh 10/1 3 3Segesta (KY) Jose L. Ortiz 122 Chad C. Brown 15/1 4 4Simply in Front (KY) Lanfranco Dettori 122 Eddie Kenneally 15/1 5 5Kehoe Beach (KY) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 122 Wesley A. Ward 9/2 6 6Do Gooder (KY) Jose E. Morelos 118 Jena M. Antonucci 30/1 7 7A Lilac Rolla (IRE) Junior Alvarado 118 William I. Mott 6/1 8 8Excellent Truth (IRE) Flavien Prat 118 Chad C. Brown 5/2 9 9Choisya (GB) Luis Saez 124 Simon Crisford 4/1 10 10Heredia (GB) Manuel Franco 118 H. Graham Motion 15/1 11 11Sacred Wish (KY) John R. Velazquez 124 George Weaver 12/1
