The Diana (Grade 1)- $500.000 Purse
SAR- For Fillies and Mares Four Years Old and Upward
One Mile and One Eighth on the Turf
July 13, 2024
It’s the first Saturday of the SAR meet, and wow, do we have a treat! The Grade 1 Diana is taking place and the horses that are taking part are very impressive. This is not a place for up and comers, as the entrant with the lowest career earnings has still made about $500.000. La Terrifiant is here, and so to is Painville. You can make anyone in here a headliner. What we will have is the winners of the last three runnings of the Diana, as La Terrifiant did take the race in both 2021 and 2022 before finishing second to Starting Over in 2023, and that one is here to defend her title and do exactly what La Terrifiant did and win twice in a row. Impressively, four of the eight that ran in 2023 are right back here in 2024, and those four finished in the top four spots. Another thing that needs to be mentioned is Smokey Stover’s stranglehold on the race as of late, as he had a four-race winning streak prior to the last year’s race. So, let’s get to it and meet this loaded field:
1- Lady Hilltopper (Black N Gold Stable, ridden by F Pennington)- She took July off last year, so was not part of the Diana, though she did run here a month after in the Glens Falls. That was not her best effort, but her biggest win of the year came in October at SA in the Grade 2 Rodeo Drive. That got her into the BC Fillies and Mares Turf, where she was not a factor but showed no ill effects from that race afterward. When we last saw her, it was in the Grade 1 Gamely at SA, where she beat Painville, but ran second to Techfluence High.
2- Camus (Mo Mentum Farm, ridden by T Gaffalione)- Ran here last month as a part of the four-day racing festival for the BEL in the Grade 1 NY, and picked up the win by a half a length. The victory was her first in a graded stake, and she was better than La Terrifiant on that day. Now, it’s back to the Spa to face that one again, but also some that she has yet to contend with. Camus is accomplished, but when up against these names on paper, she does not hold bragging rights. A win here can go a long way to doing just that.
3- Painville (Mo Mentum Farm, ridden by F Geroux)- While the trainer is excited to have Camus in his stable, Painville is the one that gives him the most joy, one would think. Painville was here last year for the Diana and ran fourth after winning the Grade 1 Just A Game a month before that. During the fall, she picked it up a notch, first running second in the First Lady (Grade 1) at KEE before becoming the champion of the BC Fillies and Mares Turf a month later. Since then, she has one win in four starts, which was the Grade 1 Wiley in April but has been competitive each time out. That should not change here.
4- Starting Over (TwinTowersRacing, ridden by S X Bridgmohan)- Last year, Starting Over won the Diana, two months after winning the Grade 1 La Troienne at CD and proving that she had could win a big race on both the dirt and the turf. However, she has not been back on the grass since that Diana victory. A month after that, she won the Personal Ensign right here on the dirt, and that led the way in the trainer’s decision to keep her on that surface. Running third in the BC Distaff showed that was the right move, and Starting Over has continued to run well as a six-year-old. A win here last month in the Phipps meant that she would become 3-for-3 at the Spa, with all wins being Grade 1’s. Now, it’s back to the grass to defend her crown.
5- Liberty Lake (D J C Racing Stables, ridden by P Lopez)- Ordinarily, a horse that has $481.020 in earnings will not be the least accomplished horse in a field, so that is a testament to what we have here in the Diana. Liberty Lake has four wins over her 23 starts, and she’s earned a couple of NY-bred stake wins over that time. That’s highlighted by the Ticonderoga at AQU last October. Recently, she’s been taking on much stronger fields and was third in the Just A Game last month.
6- Techfluence High (The Sidley Stud, ridden by Mario Gutierrez)- Last October, Techfluence High won the Grade 2 Sands Point at AQU, a win that send her into the BC Fillies and Mares Turf. It was good to see the horse that had won the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf the year prior be able to make it into that race as well, though she was not able to beat any of her rivals that day. She was a little slow to get going after that race, but may be getting it together right now, with back-to-back wins in the Grade 3 Royal Heroine Stakes and then the Grade 1 Gamely, each of which are held at SA. Can she stay hot and win her third in a row?
7- Poetic Panther (Maletto, ridden by Jam Rodriguez)- This is another filly who is hot, riding a three-race win streak that began down at GP in the Grade 3 Orchid Stakes. After six weeks, she then captured the $100.000 Santa Barbara Stakes, and yes, that field may not have been the strongest, but she did everything that was asked of her. A month later, she did the same in the Grade 3 Eatontown Stakes. For her, this field is most comparable to what she saw in the Hillsborough Stakes right before the streak began, when she was fourth in a dead heat with Painville. I think she will run another big one here but picking her is tough when seeing these rivals.
8- Demanding Commander (Mb Stables, ridden by J R Velazquez)- It’s a bit of a shame that we can look at a field like this and have the names of a couple others jump out at you before her name does. After all, Demanding Commander may very well be the one to beat in this race, because other than in the BC Fillies and Mares Turf, that’s all she has done since September. Her six wins in seven starts, and four race win streak since the BC include the Just A Game in her last start, here last month. That BC race was a dud, and that for now, keeps La Terrifiant and Painville from being more attractive names on paper. But 2024 may very well be Demanding Commander’s year, and she is doing everything right thus far.
9- La Terrifiant (Smokey Stover, ridden by R M Hernandez)- Everyone reading this knows she is a superstar, and this will be the sixth (!!!) time that she runs in the Diana. In 2019 and 2020, she did so for Our Athletes, and finished fifth in each of them. Soon after the 2020 version, she was sold to Smokey Stover. For this race, that was the right barn to be in, as the trainer won the prior two editions before La Terrifiant was entered in 2021, and the mare won both that year and in 2022. Starting Over was the only one that could beat her from winning the Diana for the third time. She’s liked it here at SAR, as this was where she broke her maiden back in 2017, and when running for Smokey Stover specifically, La Terrifiant has four wins in five starts (the 2023 Diana being the exception). Her last race was here in the Grade 1 NY. She’s good everywhere, but she’s actually really liked it here at the Spa, specifically. As she closes in on $10,000.000 in earnings, this is a fitting race and track for that to happen at.
Prediction: 8-9-3-7
— NS
Categories: Grade I, STAKES ARTICLES
