Dynamic Pricing upsets Brown stablemate Excellent Truth in Just a Game

Trainer Chad Brown won Friday’s $500,000 Just a Game (G1) for the fourth straight year, and a record eighth time in the past nine years, but not with his best-fancied runner. Bettors forecast Excellent Truth to do the honors as the 8-5 favorite, only to see Dynamic Pricing jump up in a $22 upset on the yielding turf at Saratoga.

Both closers had form on rain-softened going, and the difference was likely Dynamic Pricing’s ground-saving trip. While Excellent Truth had to play the hand dealt her in post 8, the rail-drawn Dynamic Pricing was able to take a shorter route much of the way. She completed a Grade 1 double for jockey Dylan Davis, after La Cara wired the Acorn (G1).

As expected, Kehoe Beach dashed to the lead and carved out splits of :24.25, :48.82, and 1:13.78 on the yielding inner turf. She was still in command in midstretch, but the final furlong found her out. The challenging Special Wan had to alter course inside when Kehoe Beach drifted, and all the momentum was unfolding to their outside. 

Dynamic Pricing had angled out to find running room and moved in tandem with Excellent Truth, who was hung out widest of all. Down the lane, Dynamic Pricing kicked into gear faster than her stablemate to prevail in 1:38.77 for the mile. Excellent Truth stayed on for second, three-quarters of a length back, to complete the Brown exacta.

“I’m very proud of Dylan (Davis), who did save ground a lot of the trip,” Brown said, “and then when he did have to go wide on that last turn, I think he had conserved so much energy from a covered trip that she had enough to outkick my other horse, the runner-up Excellent Truth, who really also ran well and had a challenging trip – rank, bounced around on the first turn and quite wide turning for home. She really took the worst of it."

Special Wan collared Kehoe Beach to round out a trifecta of Irish-breds. Next came Simply in Front; Brown’s longshot Segesta; Choisya, who didn’t get her optimal conditions, Do Gooder, and slow-starting A Lilac Rolla in her U.S. debut. Heredia and Sacred Wish were withdrawn. 

Dynamic Pricing’s scorecard stands at 9-4-0-3, $772,125, reflecting wins in last year’s Edgewood (G2) at a yielding Churchill Downs and the May 4 Beaugay (G3) in her Aqueduct reappearance. The Klaravich Stables colorbearer finished a close third in the 2024 Sweetest Chant (G3) at Gulfstream Park, the Lake Placid (G2) here (just a half-length off She Feels Pretty), and the Winter Memories S. 

Brown revealed that the daughter of Night of Thunder was a late addition to the Just a Game.

“Seth (Klarman of Klaravich Stables) and I kicked it around, and it was sort of a last-minute entry that I had marked, and I was kind of in and out,” the horseman said. “When the skies opened and it rained, she does move up on softer turf. 

“It didn’t help Randomized earlier, who hated it (in the Ogden Phipps [G1]), but it goes to show you when the weather comes, you just have to hope you have the right horse. For her, she is looking for soft turf, I do believe.” 

Dynamic Pricing has put herself into calculations for the July 12 Diana (G1), the port of call for Friday’s New York (G1) star, She Feels Pretty.