Ways and Means winning the Test at Saratoga. (Angelo Lieto)
By Christian Abdo
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Klaravich Stables’ Grade 1-winner Ways and Means looms large in Sunday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Gallant Bloom, a 6 1/2-furlong sprint for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up, at Belmont at the Big A.
Trained by four-time Eclipse Award winner Chad Brown, the sophomore Practical Joke bay earned her first top-level score last-out in the seven-furlong Grade 1 Test presented by Ticketmaster on August 3 at Saratoga Race Course. There, she pressed the pace through early fractions of 22.43 seconds and 44.54, before kicking clear near the quarter-pole to a 2 1/2-length victory in a final time of 1:22.28.
Brown said that Ways and Means has since trained well towards a goal of competing in Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint in November at Del Mar, including a bullet 48.22 half-mile on September 21 over the Oklahoma dirt training track at the Spa, fastest-of-89 workers at the distance.
“She had a great work at Saratoga. She worked really solid,” said Brown. “I think she could use one prep for the Breeders’ Cup.”
Ways and Means made a pair of two-turn attempts to start her current campaign, finishing second to eventual Grade 1 Alabama-winner Power Squeeze in the 1 1/16-mile Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks in March and fourth in the nine-furlong Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks won by Thorpedo Anna in May at Churchill Downs.
After the Kentucky Oaks, Ways and Means cut back to one-mile from the Wilson Chute in a Saratoga allowance on June 6 during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival. She romped by 8 1/4 lengths despite an awkward break, earning a career and field-best 104 Beyer Speed Figure in victory ahead of the Test.
“She’s doing great and seems to be holding her form good,” Brown said. “She’s in the best shape I’ve ever seen her. She’s really good right now.”
This summer’s success at the Spa wasn’t a first for Ways and Means, who graduated on debut there by an eye-catching 12 3/4 lengths last August before a troubled half-length defeat to Brightwork in the Grade 1 Spinaway last September.
A Kentucky homebred, Ways and Means is out of the Ontario-bred stakes winner Strong Incentive, who also produced the Brown-trained and Klaravich-owned Grade 1-victor and multiple graded stakes-winner Surge Capacity, along with graded-stakes winner Highly Motivated.
Flavien Prat will be aboard from post 3.
Hall of Famer Bill Mott will send out an up-and-coming challenger in Stephen Rousseau’s Nic’s Style [post 2, Junior Alvarado] and Mark Anderson’s seasoned veteran Sterling Silver [post 1, Irad Ortiz, Jr].
The Florida-bred Nic’s Style is 3-for-3, all in frontrunning fashion, romping in her first two starts at Gulfstream Park for trainer Ralph Nicks, including a 10 1/4-length state-bred optional claiming score at Sunday’s distance in December. That effort came off a layoff since a 4 1/2-furlong debut win in May 2022.
After the strong gate-to-wire showing at 6 1/2 furlongs, the 4-year-old Uncaptured bay did not return until August 17 at Saratoga, where she made a successful debut for Mott winning a six-furlong allowance by 5 3/4 lengths. The pacesetting performance earned a career-best 98 Beyer.
Nic’s Style, a $25,000 purchase at the 2021 OBS October Yearling Sale, is out of the Street Sense mare Sense When, a half-sister to stakes-winner Holding Aces. Her second dam is Grade 1-placed Will O Way.
The multiple graded stakes-placed New York-bred Sterling Silver has made three starts for Mott, registering her first win in the barn last-out in the state-bred Johnstone Mile Handicap on August 7 at the Spa. There, the 5-year-old Cupid gray stalked in third position before surging to a 9 3/4-length victory.
In last year’s Gallant Bloom, Sterling Silver, who was then conditioned by Tom Albertrani, crossed the wire four lengths in front but was disqualified and placed second. For Albertrani, she won a trio of state-bred stakes including the local 2022 Franklin Square and 2023 Iroquois, and the 2022 Bouwerie at Belmont Park.
Bred by Mallory Mort and Karen Mort, Sterling Silver, out of the unraced Distorted Humor mare Sheet Humor, was a $13,000 purchase at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Select Yearling Sale and has banked $837,301 through a 25-8-3-4 record. She is cross-entered as a main track-only in Thursday’s state-bred $125,000 John Hettinger.
KEM Stables’ multiple graded stakes-placed Hot Fudge [post 5, Jose Lezcano] is 6-for-10 at the Big A and looks to build upon that record for trainer Linda Rice.
The 5-year-old Liam’s Map dark bay won five straight races from last June to March, tallying the local six-furlong Garland of Roses in December, the seven-furlong Listed Interborough in January and the six-furlong Correction in March.
The win streak came to an end with a fifth in the seven-furlong Grade 3 Distaff on April 6 here, which preceded a pair of thirds in the Grade 3 Vagrancy and Grade 2 Bed o’ Roses.
Most recently, Hot Fudge was a distant third as the favorite of four horses in the off-the-turf restricted De La Rose going one-mile from the Wilson Chute on July 31 at Saratoga.
“It was a debacle at Saratoga for her,” Rice said. “We’ll get her back on a track that she’s won several stakes races on and at a distance that works best for her. Hopefully, we can just draw a line through the Saratoga race.”
The Kentucky-bred mare, out of the winning Into Mischief mare Noelle’s Mischief, has banked $562,105 through a 17-8-1-4 record.
Rounding out the field is California Racing Partners, Ciaglia Racing and Domenic Savides’ Pacific Rose [post 4, Ricardo Santana, Jr.], who looks to make the grade in her fourth attempt. Trained by Jorge Delgado, the sophomore Not This Time dark bay enters from a 1 1/4-length optional-claiming victory sprinting six furlongs on September 1 at Monmouth Park.
Pacific Rose’s last-out victory earned a career-best 81 Beyer, marking her best performance to date in her third start for Delgado, after making her first seven starts on the West Coast for trainer Doug O’Neill.
For O’Neill, Pacific Rose made three graded attempts going 1 1/16 miles, finishing off-the-board in the Grade 2 Chandelier in October and the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel in March at Santa Anita Park, with a fifth-place effort in the Grade 2 Starlet in December at Los Alamitos in between.
The Gallant Bloom is slated as Race 2 on Sunday’s nine-race card, that also features the Grade 2, $200,000 Miss Grillo, which provides a “Win and You’re In” berth to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, in Race 8. First post is 1:05 p.m. Eastern.
America’s Day at the Races will present live coverage and analysis of the Belmont at the Big A fall meet on the networks of FOX Sports. For the broadcast schedule and channel finder, visit https://www.nyra.com/aqueduct/racing/tv-schedule/.
