Dynamic Pricing wins the G1 Just a Game
- TDN
- Jun 9
- 3 min read
Klaravich Stables' Dynamic Pricing (Ire)(Night of Thunder {Ire}) beat Excellent Truth (Ire) (Cotai Glory {Ire}) to a spot at a crucial stage in Friday's GI Just A Game Stakes at a very soggy Saratoga and outstprinted the 8-5 chalk to the wire to give trainer Chad Brown his eighth victory in the one-mile contest in its last nine renewals and a fourth in succession.

Half of those eight Just A Game winners were ridden by Irad Ortiz, Jr., but he elected to jump off the last-out GIII Beaugay Stakes winner in favor of the speedy Kehoe Beach (Omaha Beach), and even though there appeared to be plenty of speed signed on, the pair were loose on the lead through an opening quarter in :24.25, a testing-enough split over ground listed officially as yielding, but playing much slower in actual fact.
For his part, Dylan Davis had Dynamic Pricing settled one from the tail and, making the most of the inside draw, kept the filly close to the inside while creeping a bit closer to race underneath Excellent Truth through a half in :48.82. Davis went for Dynamic Pricing about three furlongs out, coming around the prominently ridden, but now retreating Segesta (Ghostzapper) and critically taking a four-path run outside of GI Jenny Wiley Stakes winner Choisya (GB) (Night of Thunder {Ire}) and inside of Excellent Truth approaching the quarter pole. The duo raced shoulder-to-shoulder into the final furlong, but Dynamic Pricing got through the ground slightly the better–particularly after switching leads–and proved a one-length winner. It was the third 1-2 finish on the program for Brown and his fourth overall on Friday.
A debut winner in a single juvenile appearance, Dynamic Pricing relished the easy underfoot conditions when taking last year's GIII Edgewood Stakes at Churchill Downs at nearly 9-1 and closed the campaign with third-place efforts to stablemate Grayosh (Yoshida {Jpn}) in this track's GII Lake Placid Stakes in August and in the Winter Memories Stakes at Aqueduct Sept. 13, both times by narrow margins. She made her seasonal reappearance in the Beaugay on May 4, coming with a nine- or 10-wide sweep into the lane and sustaining her momentum to score by a half-length.
The Just A Game may not have been Plan A for Brown, but the conditioner admitted that the filly talked him into it.
“Seth [Klarman] 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,” Brown said. “Last year, you could tell if you looked at her [at the end of the season], she just was burnt out mentally and just didn't look good. I think she was just a bit over the whole season and needed a freshening and I have wonderful owners in Seth and Beth Klarman who allowed me to run the show.”
Added Klarman, whose 'TDN Rising Star' Ways and Means (Practical Joke) romped in the GII Bed O'Roses Stakes earlier in the day: “I so love being back at Saratoga. We have a couple of really nice fillies. Feel so blessed, thank you.
“[Dynamic Pricing]'s been training great. Chad was optimistic that she had a big shot. She came back better than ever after winning the Beaugay. We felt really good about this.”
Pedigree Notes:
Dynamic Pricing's dam was bred and raced by the late His Highness The Aga Khan, winning her maiden at career start number three at Vichy for trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre. Unplaced in three subsequent appearances, Shemda was knocked down to Badgers Bloodstock for €100,000 ($117,740) at the 2017 Arqana December Mixed Sale.
Dynamic Pricing is the third foal from her dam, whose half-brother Shamida (Ire) (Australia {GB}) was a treble Group 3 winner in Ireland at three and four for trainer Dermot Weld at distances from 12 to 14 furlongs, but sadly passed away in 2024.
On behalf of Klaravich, Mike Ryan gave 170,000gns ($204,442) for Dynamic Pricing at the 2022 October Sale from the draft of the Brosnans' Croom House Stud at Tattersalls, a happy and productive hunting ground for Klaravich where top horses such as the additional Grade I winners Program Trading (GB) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), Newspaperofrecord (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), McKulick (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and Domestic Spending (GB) (Kingman {GB}) have been sourced.
Dynamic Pricing is the seventh elite-level scorer for Darley Europe's Night of Thunder. According to the Croom House website, Shemda is the dam of a yearling colt by Mehmas (Ire) that is headed to Book 1 of this year's October Sale, a full-brother to Dynamic Pricing foaled this past February and was bred back to Night of Thunder.
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