Older fillies and mares run over a mile in the Grade I Just A Game Stakes of 2025 with key form races available to bettors and oddsmakers alike for the $500,000 turf race at Saratoga on Friday, June 6.
Keeneland’s Jenny Wiley Stakes is one such event with the first four home in the Commonwealth all taking each other on again in Upstate New York on day three of the Belmont Racing Festival. Successful in that Grade I contest was British runner Choisya.
Although asserting to make sure of victory as the wire approached, Simon & Ed Crisford’s mare is now worse off at the weights with a couple of those in-behind here. Choisya, a five-year-old mare by Night Of Thunder, likes a quick surface and has won all three of her starts in 2025 so far.
The transatlantic raider now concedes 6lb to Excellent Truth, who got no run up the fence in the home stretch around Keeneland. This swing in weight explains why oddsmakers on Belmont Stakes betting sites and the Morning Line handicappers no longer favor Choisya.
About a length covered those in the Jenny Wiley show, so connections of Excellent Truth and Kehoe Beach (2lb better off with the winner) will fancy their chances of turning about the form. Sacred Wish, well-beaten since and also re-opposing, has the widest draw of all in the Just A Game Stakes of 2025, so may struggle from Gate 11.
Brown Bids for Eighth Race Win
Excellent Truth just happens to be in good hands for this race. Her trainer, Chad Brown, is not only a Saratoga local, but he has a record seven wins since 2017. She’s not the only runner representing the barn, however.
Joining Excellent Truth in the contest are Segesta and Beaugay Stakes winner Dynamic Pricing. Another by prolific turf sire Night Of Thunder, the latter is a four-year-old filly for who this trip should be optimum.
Brown’s recent record is formidable. He landed a seventh Saratoga trainers’ championship in 2024. In Excellent Truth and Dynamic Pricing, who concedes 4lb in weight to her barn buddy, the handler has two obvious contenders.
The Just A Game Stakes of 2025 isn’t all about Brown, however, with Heredia re-opposing Dynamic Pricing from Aqueduct for Wathnan Racing and H. Graham Motion. She made the show in the Beaugay on her American debut and first start on any racetrack for 575 days.
Heredia should strip fitter for that return to action and this six-year-old Dark Angel mare progressed into European pattern races after winning a valuable Royal Ascot handicap earlier in her career when trained in England. Outside the Beaugay and Jenny Wiley, three last time out winners take their chances.
A Lilac Rolla May Need Just A Game Stakes 2025 Run for Mott
Brendan Walsh runs Special Wan for Team Valor after landing the Honey Fox Stakes at Gulfstream Park back in March. This five-year-old Belardo mare then missed an intended date at Churchill Downs in the Distaff Turf Mile during the Kentucky Derby meet.
That Grade II contest went to Simply In Front. Luis Saez doesn’t ride Eddie Kenneally’s four-year-old Summer Front filly here, however, preferring instead to maintain his partnership with Choisya. Frankie Dettori takes over on Simply In Front now.
Jena Antonucci is no stranger to Belmont Stakes winners or success at this Festival. She pitches Do Gooder in here off the back of a minor success in an Gulfstream Park optional claimer. A race like this demands a lot more, though.
A classy import from the Emerald Isle to the Bill Mott barn in A Lilac Rolla is set for her US debut in the Just A Game Stakes of 2025. Formerly in the care of Paddy Twomey, the four-year-old filly by Harry Angel made the show in both the Irish 1000 Guineas and Tattersalls Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket last season.
A Lilac Rolla hasn’t raced since the July Festival some 330 days prior to this, however, and that lack of a recent run counts against her. She now competes for Resolute Racing, the same colors carried by the favored Excellent Truth. It’s an absorbing edition that will help establish the pecking order of older female turf milers in America.
Just A Game Stakes 2025 Post Positions Draw & Morning Line Odds
- Dynamic Pricing (122lbs) – 12-1
- Special Wan (120lbs) – 10-1
- Segesta (122lbs) – 15-1
- Simply In Front (122lbs) – 15-1
- Kehoe Beach (122lbs) – 9-2
- Do Gooder (118lbs) – 30-1
- A Lilac Rolla (118lbs) – 6-1
- Excellent Truth (118lbs) 5-2 fav
- Choisya (124lbs) – 4-1
- Heredia (118lbs) – 15-1
- Sacred Wish (124lbs) – 12-1
Our Handicappers Win Place Show Bets for Just A Game Stakes 2025
Win: Excellent Truth
Place: Dynamic Pricing (ATB)
Show: Choisya (ATB)
Longshot: Heredia (ATB)
WATCH: Chili Flag Win Just A Game Stakes at Saratoga
