Chad Brown seeks fourth straight win in the Grade 1 Just a Game
Chad Brown seeks fourth straight win in the Grade 1 Just a Game
by the NY Hot List Staff // Thursday, June 25
Turf trainer extraordinaire Chad Brown will try and win his fourth straight running of the Grade 1 Just a Game on Saturday at Belmont Park when he sends three into the one-mile test on the Widener turf course.
Brown won the Just a Game last year with Rushing Fall, in 2018 it was A Raving Beauty, and Antonoe was the winner in 2017. This year, he will be represented by Uni, Newspaperofrecord, and Regal Glory.
The race is named in honor of owner Peter Brant’s six-time graded stakes winning filly who was named Champion Grass Mare in 1980. Brant is one of Brown’s top owners but has yet to win this race.
2019 Champion Turf Female Uni will make her 2020 debut in the Just a Game which will be her first start since beating the males in the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) at Santa Anita. Jockey Joel Rosario gave up a mount on the Stephen Foster (G2) favorite Tom’s d’ Etat to keep the mount on the 6-year-old mare.
“She’s doing well,” Brown said. “There’s a little uncertainty with the layoff, but she seems to be training well. She has a great turn of foot and we’ll just see how it plays out.”
Newspaperofrecord made a winning 2020 debut on June 6, when she was a front running winner of the Intercontinental (G3) at Belmont Park. The now 4-year-old has shown a liking to soft turf courses in the past and has had a tendency to be hard to handle on the track. Irad Ortiz Jr. will once again have the mount on the Klaravich Stables runner.
“She’s doing fine,” Brown noted. “She seems very settled in the mornings. She went fast fractions last time, which wasn’t really what I wanted, but she doesn’t need to do that. She’s been pretty relaxed and settled.”
Regal Glory, who was a winner of two graded stakes races at Saratoga last summer, was second in her first race of this year in the Intercontinental behind her stablemate. The 4-year-old daughter of Animal Kingdom will be ridden by Belmont Stakes winning jockey Manny Franco.
“A mile is a good distance for her. It’s a big step up for her, but hopefully can grab a piece of it,” Brown said.
Here is a full analysis of the Just a Game. The rest of the picks from the New York Hot List for this Saturday card are available on this website free of charge.
10th race – (6) Uni makes her 2020 debut after last being seen winning the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) against the boys. That victory secured the Turf Female Championship for the Chad Brown trainee. Her only loss in the last eight starts was at Saratoga last summer. She has run well off long layoffs before. Uni has 7 wins in 8 tries at the mile distance. (4) Newspaperofrecord made an impressive return to the races with a four-length victory in the Intercontinental (G3) at Belmont Park just three weeks ago that earned a career best speed figure. Although, all four of her wins came on yielding turf courses. (1) Beau Recall was second in this race last year. This will be her second start of 2020 after falling far behind when she got bothered at the start of the Mint Julep (G3) at Churchill Downs. She has past races that can contend with the Chad Brown runners. (2) Get Stormy seems to have lost the stellar form that she had last year. Out of respect for what some accomplished, she has to be considered if she can run one of her better races. If not, she could be on her way to a career as a broodmare.