Brown Sends Out Four in Bid for Eighth Ballston Spa Win

Trainer Chad Brown has been the dominant factor in the Ballston Spa Stakes (G2T) in recent years, winning the past two runnings and five of the previous six.

Looking over the entries for the Aug. 24 edition at Saratoga Race Course, little has changed.

Of the nine turf entrants, four are trained by the four-time Eclipse Award winner. They form a powerful combo in the $300,000, 1 1/16-mile grass stakes for older fillies and mares.

Brown will send out Consumer Spending , Fluffy Socks , Speak of the Devil , and 2022 Ballston Spa winner Technical Analysis , all of whom are graded stakes winners, with three being grade 1-placed.

Klaravich Stables’ Consumer Spending enters with a two-race winning streak built in a pair of Monmouth Park stakes, the Matchmaker (G3T) and Eatontown (G3T). The 4-year-old daughter of More Than Ready (IRE) won the Wonder Again Stakes (G2T) and was third in the Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1T) at 3.

“She is doing better than ever,” said Brown, who is seeking an eighth Ballston Spa win. “She’s reached new heights in my barn in my estimation. She has done really well.”

Head of Plains Partners’ homebred Fluffy Socks is a multiple grade 2 winner, taking the Churchill Distaff Turf Mile Stakes (G2T) two starts ago. A 5-year-old mare, owner Sol Kumin’s daughter of Slumber was fifth last time out in the Diana Stakes (G1T) and has five wins and seven seconds in 19 career starts with earnings of slightly more than $1 million.

She was second to Technical Analysis by a half-length in last year’s Ballston Spa.

“Fluffy Socks is looking to rebound from her last race and hopefully is ready to get back on track,” Brown said.

Klaravich’s Technical Analysis has been highly consistent with 7 wins and 4 seconds in 14 career starts. In her two 2023 starts, the 5-year-old daughter of Kingman was second in the Perfect Sting Stakes and won the Aug. 2 De La Rose Stakes at the Spa.

“She loves Saratoga, so I thought it was worth a shot,” said Brown of the mare that has four wins and a second in five Saratoga starts.

Brown said Peter Brant’s Speak of the Devil may not run depending on the condition of the turf course. A winner of 2022 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile in her U.S. debut, the Wootton Bassett 6-year-old is winless in four starts since then. She was fifth in the June 9 Just A Game Stakes (G1T) in her most recent start.

Outside of the Brown contingent, Doreen Tabor’s Jumbly deserves considerable attention. The 4-year-old Gleneagles filly will be making her first United States start off some solid mile efforts in Europe.

Trained by Joseph O’Brien, she was fourth by three lengths in the Duke of Cambridge Stakes (G2) at Royal Ascot in June. Before that she finished second in the Lanwades Stud Stakes (G2) at the Curragh.

The field also includes Phipps Stable’s Surprisingly , who was second to Consumer Spending in both the Matchmaker and Eatontown stakes; the Estate of Robert J. Amendola’s Evvie Jets , who won the Perfect Sting Stakes in front-running fashion; Lazy F Ranch’s multiple grade 3 winner Gam’s Mission , who was third in the Matchmaker; and Anthony McLoughlin’s Sister Bridget , whose five 2023 starts, all in allowance company, have produced only one start better than a fifth.

Into Happiness is a main-track-only entrant.