Dynamic Pricing gives Dylan Davis two Grade 1s on the day. (Coglianese/NYRA photo)
By Mary Eddy
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Friday proved a day to remember for jockey Dylan Davis as he scored his second Grade 1 on the card with Dynamic Pricing (IRE) in Friday’s $500,000 Just a Game presented by Resolute Racing, a one-mile inner turf route for older fillies and mares, on Day Three of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga Race Course.
Davis, aboard Klaravich Stables’ 4-year-old Night of Thunder bay for the first time in the afternoon, added to a strong win with the Hall of Famer Mark Casse-trained La Cara in the Grade 1 DK Horse Acorn in Race 11.
“Incredible, it really is. It’s very special for me,” Davis said. “This is what I work so hard for in my life, to enjoy these moments. It’s just really special, and to do it at home. I have [five] Grade 1 wins and three of them are at Saratoga, so that’s something special.”
The win also provided five-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown with a record-extending eighth Just a Game victory.
“I like winning this race,” said Brown, who teamed up with Klaravich Stables to win the Grade 2 Bed o’ Roses with Ways and Means in Race 6. “I point to it every year. It’s a nice run we are having with this race, making a lot of history and as long as I’m training, I’ll point to it.”
The victory was the first topflight coup for Dynamic Pricing, adding to previous graded success in last year’s Grade 2 Edgewood at Churchill Downs and the Grade 3 Beaugay last out on May 4 at Belmont at the Big A.
The Irad Ortiz, Jr.-piloted Kehoe Beach was away quickest in the Just a Game and bounded to the front to lead the field into the first turn and through an opening quarter-mile in 24.25 seconds over the yielding footing with longshot Do Gooder holding second and the Brown-trained Segesta in third down on the rail.
Dynamic Pricing, away from the inside post, was near the rear of the field heading into the backstretch, sitting patiently as the slow-starting A Lilac Rolla advanced to the outside of her and Simply in Front. The tightly-bunch group maintained their positions as Kehoe Beach marked the half-mile in 48.82, but the race was on entering the turn when the favored Choisya made her move in the three path and Dynamic Pricing was coaxed along by a patient Davis.
Kehoe Beach was still in front through three-quarters in 1:13.78 as the field straightened for home, but was soon under threat as the Brown-trained Excellent Truth, who was shuffled around in the first turn, came rolling from mid-pack and Dynamic Pricing split foes in the center of the lane to loom large around a stalling Choisya.
Special Wan ducked down to the inside path with a game run as a tenacious Kehoe Beach was finally collared, and both Dynamic Pricing and Excellent Truth came flying in the center of the course inside the final sixteenth, but it was the former who had the superior momentum as she crossed the wire three-quarter-lengths in front in a final time of 1:38.77.
Excellent Truth finished one length ahead of Special Wan with Kehoe Beach completing the superfecta. Simply in Front, Segesta, Choisya, Do Gooder and A Lilac Rolla completed the order of finish. Heredia and Sacred Wish were scratched.
Davis said the start was key to a smooth trip from the inside post.
“I was just trying to break as good as possible with the one hole. I didn’t have much speed to work with, but I was able to get into a good spot,” Davis explained. “Toward the backside, I was just trying to figure out where all the riders wanted to be. At the quarter-pole, I was working my way between horses, banked in the middle of the turn and found a seam that was very nice for me. It opened up right to the top of the lane and she kicked on. She loved the soft ground. She really thrived on it, and she was best.”
Brown, who won four races on the card, praised the well-measured ride from Davis.
“I’m very proud of Dylan, who did save ground a lot of the trip and then when he did have to go wide on that last turn, I think he had conserved so much energy from a covered trip that she had enough to out-kick my other horse, the runner-up Excellent Truth, who really also ran well and had a challenging trip; rank, bounced around on the first turn and quite wide turning for home,” Brown said. “She really took the worst of it.”
Brown added that Dynamic Pricing could target the nine-furlong Grade 1, $500,000 Dunkin’ Diana on July 12 at the Spa, where she would stretch out and face competitors from today’s Grade 1 New York presented by Rivers Casino, who would be cutting back. Brown has won the Diana a record nine times, taking eight of the last nine runnings.
“The way she finished there, [the Diana] would be another big step forward because you’ll meet these horses from [the New York] stepping down in distance and you move out to a mile and an eighth, where you risk not having the pace to run at,” Brown said. “That Diana, we’ve won it wire-to-wire and off the pace. She’s probably a good horse to point towards there, especially if it’s wet.”
Bred in Ireland by Epona Bloodstock, Dynamic Pricing was a $204,442 purchase from Book 1 of the 2022 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. She banked $275,000 in victory while returning $22 on a $2 win wager.
Live racing resumes Saturday at Saratoga for a blockbuster Belmont Stakes Day program that includes five Grade 1 events among eight stakes in total on the 14-race card. First post on Saturday is 10:45 a.m. Eastern with admission gates open to the public at 9 a.m.
