Brown Hopes to Extend Beverly D. Record With Lemista

Chad Brown has won the last five runnings of the Beverly D. Stakes (G1T) at Arlington International Racecourse and has trained the winner six times. The Aug. 14 edition might be his last chance to extend that record, as Churchill Downs Inc. seeks to sell the Chicago-area track for redevelopment. 

The 1 3/16-mile turf affair for fillies and mares aged 3 and up returns for the first time since 2019. Between shutdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic and date disputes between Arlington and Illinois horsemen last year, the Arlington Million (G1T) and its supporting stakes were shelved.

Chad Brown's first Beverly D. win came in 2011 with Stacelita. Then his five-win streak began in 2015 with Watsdachances, followed by Sea Calisi, Dacita, and twice with Sistercharlie. In this year's $400,000 event, he will saddle Lemista, a multiple group stakes winner in Ireland who will be making her third U.S. start.

Owned by Peter Brant, Lemista will try to return to form after coming home last of eight in the July 17 Diana Stakes (G1T) at Saratoga Race Course. 

"I will draw a line through Lemista's last race," Brown said. "I've had some success in the (Beverly D.) and I don't want to sit it out.

"I don't believe her last race. She didn't run one foot in the race. She broke and did not run and I don't know why. She came back good. I don't know if she hated the turf course at Saratoga. My horses had been a little slow at Saratoga and then picked it up as the turf got firm."

Prior to the Diana, the 4-year-old daughter of Raven's Pass was second a half-length behind grade 1 winner Harvey's Lil Goil in the May 8 Beaugay Stakes (G3T) at Belmont Park.

"I loved her race in the Beaugay and her work Sunday was the best work I've seen from her," Brown said. "It's a tough race and I like to go into a race like the Beverly D. with horses who are in good form.

"I've had tremendous success with horses who are in form so this is unusual for me to take a horse out of form and try her in a race like this, but I just don't believe her last race. I think she's a top filly."

Lemista is 5-1 on the morning line, and she'll face stiff competition in 9-5 morning-line favorite Mean Mary and 2-1 second choice Santa Barbara. The whole field races with Lasix, and Lemista, Mean Mary, and Santa Barbara add the medication after racing without it most recently in stakes races in New York.

Alex Campbell Jr. homebred Mean Mary missed earning a grade 1 win by a neck in the 2020 Diana, but has five other graded stakes wins to her name. Graham Motion trains the 5-year-old Scat Daddy mare, who enters off victories in two starts this year: the June 4 New York Stakes (G2T) at Belmont and the May 15 Gallorette Stakes (G3T) at Pimlico Race Course. 

Irish invader Santa Barbara finished out of the money in two fillies' classics in England this spring, but she was a game half-length winner of the July 10 Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1T) last out, rallying to her first graded/group victory. The Camelot filly is the only 3-year-old in the field. She ships in for trainer Aidan O'Brien and the Coolmore connections of Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Westerberg. 

Local fillies and mares round out the field. The top three from Arlington's July 17 Modesty Stakes (G3T)—Naval Laughter, Joy Epifora, and Bramble Queen—all return, as does Oh So Terrible, who finished off the board in the Modesty. Bramble Queen is cross-entered in the Mike Spellman Memorial Stakes earlier on Saturday.