Diana tops first Saturday card at Saratoga

By NY Hot List Staff | Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Finally!! Racing is back at iconic Saratoga Race Course for the first time in … four and a half weeks? While fans normally have to wait 10 months to return to the Spa, with this year’s moving of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival to Saratoga, the gap was shortened to little more than a month. The first weekend of the 40-day meeting figures to be as exciting as ever with the Grade 1 Diana highlighting the Saturday card that features 11 races.

$500,000 Diana (G1) at Aqueduct, Saturday, Race 10, 5:43 pm ET.

(10) Chili Flag is in the best form of the five Chad Brown runners in the field with three wins in a row heading into the Diana. She is also one of the five $1 million earners of the field. She won the Just A Game (G1) at Saratoga last month defeating four others that are in the Diana. Before that it was the Distaff Turf Mile (G2) which included three runners that are in the Diana. The third victory was in the Honey Fox (G3). (4) Didia leads the field in victories with 11 and in earnings with more than $1.5 million. Last out she won the New York (G1) for trainer Nacho Correas following a third in the Jenny Wiley (G1). She also won the Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare. (6) Whitebeam has not won a race since the Diana last year. She was second in her 2024 debut in the Beaugay (G3) and second in the Just A Game. (8) Neecie Marie will ship up from Parx which she did in both of her 2024 starts with a second in the New York and a win in the Beaugay.

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