Brown's fab four headline competitive De La Rose

by Ryan Martin

Trainer Chad Brown will have a strong hand in Friday's 17th renewal of the $85,000 De La Rose, saddling four of the eight contenders for the one mile event over the inner turf at Saratoga Race Course.

Brown, who won the De La Rose in 2018 with subsequent champion Uni, will send out a quality quartet headed by Noor Sahara, who will cut back in distance after finishing third against allowance optional claiming company going 1 1/8 miles on June 12 at Belmont Park.

The 4-year-old bay daughter of Lope de Vega made her North American debut last out as the favorite, tracking a slow pace up front, put herself in winning contention but was ultimately passed up in the final strides missing only a neck to Wegetsdamunnys. The effort was her first start of 2020 and first since September 19 where she was fifth against stakes company at Saint-Cloud in France for former trainer Fabrice Chappet.

"It might have been a little far for her," Brown said of her last effort. "She hadn't run in a while off that effort so now she has that race under her belt. Cutting her back to a mile should do her some good."

Owned by Sol Kumin and Jason Monteleone's Madaket Stable, Sienna Farm, Michael Dubb and Bethlehem Stables, Noor Sahara was a two-time winner in France, going one mile.

Three-time Saratoga leading jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. will pilot Noor Sahara from post 2.

Catch a Bid, winner of last year's Riskaverse over a yielding inner turf at the Spa, will try to keep her perfect record going one mile intact.

Owned by Seth Klarman's Klaravich Stables, the bay daughter of Real Solution made her seasonal debut a winning one last out when leading an easy pace at every point of call in an allowance optional claiming event on June 14 at Churchill Downs. The running style was a different one for Catch a Bid, whose other two victories came when coming from well of the pace. After winning on debut over at Belmont Park last June, Catch a Bid was second to eventual graded stakes-winner Varenka before winning the Riskaverse.

Jockey Tyler Gaffalione retains the mount from post 1.

Peter Brant's Blowout has never finished off the board in eight career starts and will attempt to keep her consistent record unscathed from post 9.

The daughter of Dansili out of French Group 1-winner Beauty Parlour has never been beaten more than three-quarters of a length and will make her first start since finishing second in the Grade 3 Valley View on October 18 at Keeneland.

Blowout will attempt a third stakes victory having won the Wild Applause and the Pebbles over the Widener Turf Course at Belmont Park during her 3-year-old campaign.

Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez, a three-time winner of the De La Rose, will pilot Blowout.

Rounding out the tetrad of Brown's contenders is Juddmonte Farm's Viadera, who made her North American debut last out finishing a distant fourth over a yielding turf to stablemate Newspaperofrecord in the Grade 3 Intercontinental at Belmont.

The 4-year-old daughter of Bated Breath was previously conditioned by G.M. Lyons overseas, where she won three starts, two of which took place going one mile. A Great Britain homebred, Viadera is out of the Beat Hollow broodmare Sacred Shield and comes from the same family as Group 1-winner Twice Over.

Jockey Joel Rosario, who sported Juddmonte's signature turquoise and pink colors when guiding Filimbi to a De La Rose win in 2014, will guide Viadera from post 6.

Michael Dubb, Madaket Stables and Wonder Stables' Clara Peeters will be making her North American stakes debut in the De La Rose after a half-length allowance optional claiming score going seven furlongs over Belmont's Widener turf course on June 4.

Trained by Brad Cox, the 4-year-old daughter of Epaulette won twice in Great Britain for former conditioner Gary L. Moore and has placed in her last five outings. She made her United States debut at Fair Grounds on March 19 going one mile and finishing second beaten a neck after a slow start.

Completing the field are Passing Out [post 3, Jose Ortiz], Hogans Holiday [post 7, Ricardo Santana, Jr.] and Xenobia [post 8, Manny Franco].

Bridlewood Cat is entered for the main track only.

The De La Rose pays homage to Henryk de Kwiatkowski's 1981 Champion Grass Filly who won six graded stakes races over five different tracks, including the Diana at Saratoga and the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby against colts at Hollywood Park. The daughter of English Triple Crown winner Nijinsky was trained by Hall of Famer Woody Stephens.

The De La Rose is slated as Race 7 on Friday's 10-race card, which offers a first post of 1:10 p.m. Eastern. Saratoga Live will present daily television coverage of the 40-day summer meet on FOX Sports and MSG Networks. For the complete Saratoga Live broadcast schedule, and additional programming information, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule.

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