The Grade 1, $500,000 Diana Stakes was run on a beautiful, green turf course on the first Saturday of the Saratoga meeting. However, the results of the race were Brown. Chad Brown that is, as the trainer won the prestigious stakes for older fillies and mares for the eighth time with surprising Whitebeam.
Whitebeam was one of the four horses in the race for Brown and actually had the longest odds of the group at 7-1 in what was a five-horse field. Making just her third start since moving to Brown’s barn from Europe, the daughter of Caravaggio won the first Grade 1 of her career. She had to upset her stablemate In Italian, who was the 1-5 favorite and the leader of the filly-and-mare turf division.
As usual, In Italian went right to the lead and settled 1 1/2 lengths in front of Fev Rover, who was on the rail, with Whitebeam just outside of him. The top three stayed in these positions, five lengths ahead of the rest of the field, for the first mile of the race as the fractions were 23.96, 48, 1:11.86 and 1:35.55.
Jockey Flavien Prat asked Whitebeam to challenge In Italian on the outside, the two horses battled down the stretch, and the winner prevailed by a nose in the final stride, getting the 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.33.
