My Gun’s Loaded became one of the sharper stories of the Saratoga meet on August 22, 2026, not because she arrived with a long stakes record, but because she had almost none. In her first start in stakes company, she won the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes over 1¼ miles on dirt, and she did it at a distance that often exposes any gap between promise and class.
The same card also gave And One More Time a different sort of statement. Her Grade 2 Ballston Spa Stakes win over 1 1/16 miles on firm turf was not a sudden arrival. It was a reassertion. She had already been a Grade 1 winner as a 2-year-old, then had to rebuild her standing after a serious setback following that juvenile campaign. On the same Saratoga afternoon, two fillies at different stages of development turned in performances that now sit squarely in the center of their divisions.
My Gun’s Loaded And The Alabama Breakthrough
Why My Gun’s Loaded Handled Ten Furlongs
The Alabama Stakes has long served as a demanding late-summer examination for 3-year-old fillies, and the 2026 running asked a direct question: could a lightly raced filly stretch her form to 10 furlongs against proven Grade 1 company? The answer was yes, but not by open daylight. She defeated Measure by a neck, with Counting Stars third, in a field of six fillies. The final time was 2:04.87 on a fast Saratoga dirt track, according to the Saratoga result.
For My Gun’s Loaded, the narrow margin matters. A neck victory in a Grade 1 at 1¼ miles says less about dominance than about poise under late pressure. Measure was closing fast, which makes the winner’s ability to hold the line more meaningful. That is often the difference between a talented allowance filly and a filly capable of carrying her form into the top tier.
The Chad Brown Progression
Her path into the Alabama was strikingly compressed. She debuted on December 27, 2025, at Oaklawn Park, and by August 22, 2026, she had only four career starts. Since moving to trainer Chad Brown, she had won three straight races: a maiden special weight at seven furlongs on June 6, an allowance at one mile on July 24, and then the Alabama. That sequence is not just a winning streak. It is a rapid class climb from foundation race to Grade 1 success in less than three months.
Pedigree helps explain why the stretch-out was plausible. She is by Gun Runner and out of Strive, by Congrats. Bred in Kentucky by Corser Thoroughbreds LLC, she sold for $650,000 at the 2024 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Through the Alabama, her earnings stood at roughly $460,500, with three wins from four starts. Three Chimneys reported the Grade 1 victory and noted that Brown mentioned possible future targets against older mares, including the Beldame Stakes at Belmont or the Spinster at Keeneland, in its Alabama Stakes report.
And One More Time Reasserts Her Turf Class
Ballston Spa As A Form Reset
And One More Time’s Ballston Spa win on August 22, 2026, carried a different tone. She was not proving that she belonged in stakes company for the first time. She was showing that her earlier class had not disappeared. She won the Grade 2 Ballston Spa at Saratoga over 1 1/16 miles on firm turf, holding off Sunlit Uplands by a neck in 1:40.80.
The performance marked her second graded stakes win and fourth stakes victory. That record carries weight because it links two stages of her career: the high point of her juvenile season, when she won the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes at Woodbine in September 2024, and her 2026 Saratoga resurgence. Before the Ballston Spa, she had won the Listed De La Rose Stakes on turf at Saratoga on July 17, 2026. The two wins together suggest not a single isolated rebound, but a pattern of renewed effectiveness on grass.
Castellano, Casse, And A Controlled Front-Running Profile
Javier Castellano rode And One More Time in the Ballston Spa and in earlier victories, while trainer Mark E. Casse has overseen her comeback. That continuity matters for a filly whose campaign followed a serious injury after her 2-year-old season. The Ballston Spa was won by a neck, just as the Alabama was, but the race shape was different. And One More Time’s noted style in the Ballston Spa was to lead from the start and make that advantage stand up.
Her background also helps frame the performance. She was a $750,000 yearling at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale and is by Omaha Beach out of Complicated, by Blame. As of August 2026, her record stood at about 11 starts, six wins, no thirds, and $694,672 in earnings. That kind of profile is not built on one afternoon. It reflects early quality, interruption, and then a clear return to stakes-level output.
Saratoga Form Lines And Division Meaning
Dirt Momentum Against Turf Restoration
The value of My Gun’s Loaded lies in how quickly she changed the dirt-filly conversation. A horse making only her fourth start is usually still revealing her limits. Instead, she beat a Grade 1 field at a classic American distance for fillies. Her next assignment, if it comes against older horses, would test whether the Alabama was a peak or the start of a larger campaign arc.
And One More Time, by contrast, has already lived through the rise, interruption, and return. Her 2026 Saratoga wins in the De La Rose and Ballston Spa gave her a firmer identity as a turf mare with tactical speed and enough stamina to carry that speed around two turns. The Ballston Spa’s firm-turf setting matters, because her best recent work has come under those conditions.
Both races also show why Saratoga remains central to late-summer divisional sorting. The track’s stakes schedule often brings together horses with very different résumés: lightly raced improvers, established Grade 1 names, and returning runners trying to rebuild their standing. For readers following broader stakes movement across the sport, our recent major race analysis places these performances within a wider summer pattern. For related horse racing coverage in the same network, check out Alex Brown Racing for key insights into the sport’s major stories and personalities.
What My Gun’s Loaded And And One More Time Now Represent
Two Fillies, Two Career Shapes
My Gun’s Loaded supplied the shock of acceleration: four starts, three wins, and an immediate Grade 1 prize in the Alabama. And One More Time supplied the proof of recovery: a former Grade 1 juvenile winner who returned to win a listed Saratoga race on July 17, 2026, and then a Grade 2 on August 22, 2026. One is still defining her ceiling. The other is reminding the division what her ceiling once looked like, and why it may still be within reach.
Their shared date at Saratoga should not make their stories identical. The Alabama tested dirt stamina at 10 furlongs, while the Ballston Spa tested turf speed carried over 1 1/16 miles. One filly won her first stakes start; the other added another graded score to a career that had already reached Grade 1 level. Taken together, they gave the August 22 Saratoga card a pair of serious sporting markers: a new dirt contender with unusual momentum and a turf performer whose comeback has now gained substance.
That is the real significance. Recent stakes racing often turns on whether a horse can confirm form under sharper conditions. On August 22, 2026, both fillies did. One did it by climbing faster than expected. The other did it by coming back to the standard she had once set.
