In a surprise move, trainer Chad Brown entered Lady Eli in Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Ballston Spa Stakes, adding to a star-studded lineup competing at Saratoga on Travers Day.

The Ballston Spa shares a card with the Grade 1 Travers, which drew a 12-horse field featuring Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming, Preakness winner Cloud Computing and Belmont Stakes winner Tapwrit, and the Grade 1 Personal Ensign featuring two-time Eclipse champion Songbird.

After Lady Eli won the Grade 1 Diana here on July 22, Brown said he was going to wait to run Lady Eli in the Grade 1 Flower Bowl at Belmont Park on Oct. 8 as her last race before the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 4.

However, Lady Eli is training superbly and the forecast for the week virtually guarantees the turf will be firm on Saturday.

“As I look at the break between the Diana and the Flower Bowl, God forbid there’s a lot of rain and a soft turf course [at Belmont]; going a mile and a quarter it’s not the ideal prep for the Breeders’ Cup for her,” Brown said. “Then I might be forced to ship her to Keeneland for the First Lady, and then I’m shipping her around.”

Brown also entered the Grade 1 Just a Game winner Antonoe and Roca Rojo, the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile winner, in the Ballston Spa. Others entered were Dickinson, who beat Lady Eli in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland in April; On Leave, a Grade 2 winner; and Time and Motion, the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth winner of 2016

More later on drf.com