She’s back, baby. Back in Saratoga, back in form, and back in the winner’s circle.
Four-year-old Ways and Means (Practical Joke ) returned in triumph to Saratoga Race Course, the site of her most impressive performances, easily defeating six other fillies and mares to win the $300,000 Bed o’ Roses Stakes (G2) and push her earnings to just shy of a million dollars.
The race played in fact pretty much as it did on paper. Breaking from post 1, lone speed Irish Maxima gunned to the front under Frankie Pennington, with Ways and Means (post 3) sitting just off her up the backstretch of the seven-furlong race. Irish Maxima led the way through early fractions of :22.46 and :45.16, but when the field hit the top of the stretch, it was all Ways and Means, opening up a 7 3/4-length lead at the wire under gentle urging from Flavien Prat.
Ways and Means completed the seven furlongs in 1:21.11 over a fast main track. Scylla finished second, and it was a tight finish for third, with Jody's Pride getting the nod.
“It felt like the one (Irish Maxima) was going to be the speed and then after that, I was going to lay right next to her,” Prat said. "That is how she looked on paper, and that's how the race ended up.”
Sent off as the 1-2 favorite, Ways and Means earned $165,000 to bring her earnings to $997,500.
The bay filly is owned and bred by Klaravich Stables, out of the Warrior's Reward mare Strong Incentive, a filly that Klaravich bought as a 2-year-old for $200,000. She produced three foals before Ways and Means, all winners, and two that earned more than half a million dollars, both graded stakes winners. Last fall, Klaravich sold Surge Capacity, a grade 1-winning half sister to Ways and Means by Flintshire, at Fasig-Tipton's The November Sale in foal to Into Mischief for $3.6 million.
“The mare was amazing, and we got three graded winners out of her,” owner Seth Klarman said. “We’re really fond of the ones we bred, and we couldn't be happier. She’s 5-for-10 now, she loves Saratoga, and there are more races for her here.”
Ways and Means began her career with a 12 3/4-length win in a Saratoga maiden race two years ago, then finished a close second in the closing-weekend Spinaway Stakes (G1). She returned to Saratoga the following summer to win an allowance race and the Test Stakes (G1). More than half of the filly’s earnings have come at Saratoga Race Course.
“I was confident she was training very well,” said trainer Chad Brown, “but I’ll tell you, entering that final turn there she was catching a lot of pressure between horses. Scylla is a nice horse and was closer today and getting a nice ground-saving trip. I thought maybe it would be quite a showdown in the middle of the stretch there but (Ways and Means) did burst away from there, which was impressive.”
Though Klarman expects to run Ways and Means again at Saratoga, he demurred when asked what that next start might be, as did Brown.
“I’m not sure yet,” said Brown. “The Ballerina (Aug. 23) is very late into the season and I’m going to try to figure out what to do with her before then.”
Ways and Means is the fourth graded stakes winner this season for sire Practical Joke, who sits in fifth on the North American general sires list. The son of Into Mischief stands the 2025 breeding season for $100,000 at Ashford Stud near Versailles, Ky.
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