Expensive Queen and Segesta noses apart in the Jenny Wiley, Jenny Doyle/Past The Wire Photo
Michael Adolphson
Juddmonte’s Kentucky homebred Segesta, in career-form following two top-level wins, eyes a third consecutive Grade 1 victory in Saturday’s $500,000 Just a Game presented by Resolute Racing over one mile on Saratoga Race Course’s inner turf.
Four subsequent Breeders’ Cup winners have taken the fixture, including Perfect Sting [2000], Intercontinental [2004], Stephanie’s Kitten [2013] and Tepin [2015] – with all but Stephanie’s Kitten crowned Champion, each having won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf the same year, except for Tepin, who instead beat the boys in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile.
Seeking to stamp herself as the top turf miler among the filly and mare ranks, as well as emulate her 2017 Just a Game-winning dam, Antonoe, the Chad Brown-trained Segesta enters off a dead-heat victory in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley on April 11, her seasonal debut and fourth graded stakes victory.
Previously, the five-time winner from 12 starts landed Del Mar’s Grade 1 Matriarch in facile fashion to cap 2025. One of her rare blemishes was a lackluster sixth in last year’s Just a Game over yielding ground, her only attempt over a course rated anything but firm. Flavien Prat, aboard for her last three races, commencing with a neck-second in Keeneland’s Grade 1 First Lady, seeks his first win in the race from post 3.
Antonoe was also the fourth of a record four wins for her owner, with the famed pink and green silks having also won with Proviso [2010], Ventura [2008] and Intercontinental. She was also the first of an eye-popping eight victories in the past nine editions of the Just a Game for Brown, preceding A Raving Beauty [2018], Rushing Fall [2019], Newspaperofrecord [2020], Regal Glory [2022], In Italian [2023], Chili Flag [2024] and Dynamic Pricing [2025].
“She was off a layoff and dead-heated for the win last time,” Brown said. “She got a good run out of it, and she should move forward, fitness-wise. I didn’t have her fully cranked.”
Brown also entered Bridlewood Farm’s Sandtrap, a lightly raced daughter of Lope de Vega – sire of Newspaperofrecord – who won her stateside bow and third career start in dominant fashion against allowance company on April 18 at Aqueduct Racetrack. The victory was made all the more impressive on the back of a 544-day layoff.
A $570,662 Tattersalls October 2023 yearling, the former Ralph Beckett pupil made just a pair of starts for the master of Kimpton Down, both as a juvenile, including a one-sided debut victory over seven furlongs at Salisbury and a second to subsequent Group 1 Prix de Diane [French Oaks] and Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Gezora in Deauville’s Group 3 Prix des Reservoirs. Manny Franco rides from post 2.
“She ran to her training [last out],” Brown said. “This horse had a very impressive winter with us, and I was optimistic that she would run that way. She looks to be ready to go right into a proper Grade 1.”
Speaking of top-class French form, the main opposition to the Brown pair appears to be The Aga Khan homebred Mandanaba, a daughter of Champions Ghaiyyath and Mandesha who has won half her six starts and ran with credit in the French classics last year, including a one-length third in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches [French 1000 Guineas] and a 2 3/4-length fourth in Gezora’s French Oaks – a race in which trainer Francis-Henri Graffard went first, third and fourth. Coincidentally, the third of said trio, The Aga Khan’s Cankoura, also shipped over this week with Mandanaba to reoppose the now-Hall of Famer Bill Mott-trained Gezora in Friday’s Grade 1 New York.
After capping her sophomore season with a disappointing 12th in the Group 1 Prix Rothschild in early August, Mandanaba resurfaced in the Prix Maurice Zilber over seven furlongs on April 23, winning by a neck over Group 2-winning filly Godspeed. If victorious on Saturday, the Group 3 Prix Vanteaux winner would become the second Europe-based victress, following the Charlie Appleby-conditioned Althiqa [2021], as well as the first from France. Jockey Clement Lecoeuvre flies in for the mount and will break from post 4.
“She’s a filly who likes good, fast ground,” said Nemone Routh, director and French racing manager for The Aga Khan. “She normally breaks well and likes to be forward, enjoying a fast pace. We have always thought she was a good fit for American racing. In France, you tend to have to have a big acceleration, but she is one with more of a high cruising speed and can just keep going at that pace. She’s a really game and genuine filly.
“Francis has purposely stepped her back in trip,” Routh continued. “In the Diane, she had a bad draw and hit the front early and didn’t quite stay the distance. It went to her head a bit when she ran in the Rothschild, so we gave her a rest.
“I think she’s a good fit and just needs to travel well and get settled in. She’s strengthened a lot from three-to-four. Her first run back was good and [jockey Mickael Barzalona] that day was under strict instructions to hold her up and get her to settle and not do too much. We wanted her to have a bit of an educational run back, but she’s so genuine that she just wants to run. We’re very happy with her and excited for this race.”
Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse enters two who exit stakes wins, led by Gary Barber, Blue Crevalle Racing and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners’ Classic Q, who could not be caught in Churchill Downs’ Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile on May 2.
A course and distance winner in last year’s Listed Wild Applause under similar forward tactics, she will reunite with Hall of Famer John Velazquez from the inside post. Velazquez seeks his third win in the race, following Stephanie’s Kitten and Sand Springs [2005].
“Johnny rode a great race on her [in the Distaff Turf Mile],” Casse said. “She was coming down the stretch waiting and looking for Lush Lips [who defeated her in two graded stakes in the past year], but luckily she wasn’t there. She’s seen that filly too many times. It was a great effort and a great ride. She always tries really hard. We know she likes Saratoga.”
Casse, who seeks his second Just a Game following Tepin, also saddles Live Oak Plantation’s And One More Time, a $750,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale graduate who landed the Listed Plenty of Grace at the Big A on April 17.
The 4-year-old daughter of Omaha Beach has won half her eight races, including Woodbine’s Grade 1 Natalma as a 2-year-old. Javier Castellano, who co-owns the record with Irad Ortiz, Jr. of four Just a Game wins, landed his spoils with Rushing Fall, Antonoe, Coffee Clique [2014] and C. S. Silk [2011]. The pair break from post 5. Charlotte Weber’s Live Oak operation seeks its second Just a Game following My Typhoon [2007].
“It took her a long time to come back, She had a fairly significant injury – she had a condylar fracture left front that required five or six screws – after the Natalma, so it’s taken her awhile to get back to top form,” Casse said. “I feel like she’s there now. Javier is a very good rider, and he played the hand that was dealt [going to the lead in the Plenty of Grace].”
Another exiting Belmont at the Big A stakes company is Three Diamonds Farm’s Buttercream Babe, a 5-year-old daughter of Twirling Candy who was a tough-luck third in the Listed License Fee on May 3 over six furlongs. Said effort was her second run for trainer Rusty Arnold after going to post 15 times for Mike Maker. A three-time winner, she kicked off her season with an allowance win for Arnold over 5 1/2-furlongs on April 4 at Keeneland and now heads into the Just a Game sharpened off two sprints. Luis Saez rides from post 7.
“We’re jumping into deep water, probably, but she’s doing really well,” Arnold said. “The stretch out to a mile will suit her. Last time, she didn’t get away good and that puts you in a pretty bad situation from the get-go. It didn’t work out, but it was a credible performance. Mike did a great job with her. She’s a good filly who is easy to be around and easy to train.”
Hit The Bid Racing Stable’s Fast Market, winner of the Grade 3 Pebbles on November 23 at the Big A, enters off a 2 3/4-length sixth in the Jenny Wiley. Second in the Grade 2 Sands Point last fall, as well, the daughter of Violence looks to up her game at the top level when reopposing Segesta. Dylan Davis, victorious in last year’s edition on Dynamic Pricing, takes the mount from post 6.
Rounding out the field is John D. Gunther and Eurowest Bloodstock Services’ Deep Satin, eighth in the Jenny Wiley and fourth in the First Lady. Second in the Grade 2 Ballston Spa when last seen at the Spa, an effort that followed a win in the restricted Listed De La Rose here, she is another looking to amplify at an opportune time. Jose Ortiz, victorious aboard Regal Glory four years ago, seeks his second Just a Game when breaking from post 8.
The Just a Game is slated as Race 7 on Saturday’s stacked 14-race program, which kicks off at 11 a.m. Eastern. Highlighted by the 158th edition of Grade 1, $2 million Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets on Saturday, June 6, the 2026 Belmont Stakes Racing Festival will include 10 Grade 1 races among 18 graded stakes across five days of world class competition. For more information and to buy tickets, visit https://www.nyra.com/belmont-stakes/.
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