SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Chad Brown went into Friday’s $500,000 Just a Game Stakes at Saratoga with three Grade 1 winners among the five fillies and mares he entered in the prestigious turf event. He came out of the race with four after Chili Flag rallied from last under jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. and ran down stablemate Whitebeam to register a thrilling a half-length decision in her first start at the Grade 1 level. The victory gave Brown an unprecedented seventh win in the last eight renewals of the one-mile Just a Game, a Belmont Park fixture being contested for the first time over the Saratoga course. The win was the fourth on the card for Ortiz, whose riding status was unknown early in the day after he suffered a minor ankle injury in a gate mishap here Thursday. Brown and Ortiz did have a few anxious moments after the race, waiting out a claim of foul by jockey John Velazquez aboard third-place finisher Mission of Joy, which was ultimately dismissed by the stewards. Chili Flag came into the Just a Game off back-to-back neck victories in the Grade 3 Honey Fox at Gulfstream Park and Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile at Churchill Downs. As expected, she dropped to the rear of the seven-horse field in the run down the backstretch, about five lengths off the early pace set by Evvie Jets and pressed by Whitebeam. :: DRF's Belmont Stakes Headquarters: Contenders, latest news, and more Chili Flag angled out and brushed briefly with Mission of Joy while still last at the top of the stretch before finishing best of all down the center of the course. She overtook Whitebeam about 50 yards from the wire. Whitebeam, one of Brown’s three Grade 1 winners in the field along with Beaute Cachee and Gina Romantica, stuck her head in front of Evvie Jets upon settling into the stretch, fought on gamely through the final furlong but could not withstand the winner. Mission of Joy rallied from the rear of the pack with a strong closing surge, finishing a head behind Whitebeam in third. Evvie Jets held on to finish fourth followed, in order, by the Brown-trained trio of Gina Romantica, the 3-2 favorite Coppice, and Beaute Cachee. Chili Flag, a 5-year-old French-bred daughter of Cityscape, is owned in partnership by Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, and Michael Kisber. The $275,000 first prize pushed her career bankroll over the $1 million mark. Chili Flag covered the distance in 1:35.01 over a course listed as firm and paid $10.40 and earned a new top Beyer Speed Figure of 98. “It’s nice to see what can happen if you’re patient with these horses and let them develop into the program,” said Brown. “There was a point in time last year you wouldn’t have thought she’d be a Grade 1 winner. But I’m not surprised at all, because all winter she’d shown me she’d improved. To beat three Grade 1 winners in her first Grade 1 start shows you how far she came this winter with a little break.” Brown said he didn’t think the condition of the course, which he felt had a good deal of water on it after a quick storm passed through the area about an hour before the race, favored everybody in the field. “After that flash storm, the course went from being so hard to having a ton of water on it and I had a couple of my other jockeys say their horses were slipping and sliding on there,” said Brown. “But she [Chili Flag] has been very versatile all along.” Brown said he wouldn’t be averse to stretching Chili Flag out a little further as the year progresses. “She’s got some move,” said Brown. “The only thing that worries me about stretching her out is the pace. She could get paced out if we run her longer and that might take that kick away. I don’t think I’d stretch her too far. Is a race like the Diana on the table. Yes.” The Grade 1 Diana will be decided at a mile and one-eighth here on July 18. :: Bet the Belmont Stakes with confidence! Join DRF Bets and get a $200 deposit match bonus and FREE DRF Past Performances! Brown was also encouraged by the performance of Whitebeam, even in defeat. “She improved off a disappointing effort last time in a much easier race,” Brown noted. “She stepped up to Grade 1 company and almost got it done.” Trainer Graham Motion, who’s Mission of Joy was one of the two fillies not trained by Brown in the Just a Game, said he was really pleased with her performance. “We just came a little wide off the last turn,” said Motion. “Johnny [Velazquez] said she was slipping a little bit on the turn, that it was pretty greasy. I thought she ran awesome.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.