2018 Eclipse Awards: Chad Brown
Grade 1 races, which pit the highest quality stakes horses against each other, are typically among the most difficult to win. However, Chad Brown’s success in 2018 was such that he made the difficult seem routine.
Brown on the year won 20 Grade 1 races, the most of any trainer in North America. Moreover, he added 27 victories in Grade 2 and Grade 3 races to notch 47 graded wins altogether in 2018 as his stable amassed $27,546,057 in purse earnings, second-most all time by a trainer in a calendar year, trailing only Todd Pletcher’s record of $28,116,097 set in 2007.
These achievements, along with others in a year marked by personal bests, have resulted in Brown’s selection as a finalist for the 2018 Eclipse Award for outstanding trainer, an award he won the previous two years.
Two of his 20 Grade 1 victories in 2018 came in Breeders’ Cup races at Churchill Downs, where Newspaperofrecord capped an unbeaten season in winning the Juvenile Fillies Turf and Sistercharlie took the Filly and Mare Turf. Sistercharlie’s victory gave Brown a fourth win in that specific race, most by any trainer.
Their successes and those of other grass runners from his stable led Brown to record more than $17.2 million in turf earnings in 2018 – more than $10 million ahead of Mike Maker’s second-leading grass total.
Other Grade 1 achievements came for Brown on dirt. Wow Cat won the Beldame on Oct. 6 at Belmont, the same day Complexity won the Champagne. Separationofpowers took the Test on Aug. 4 at Saratoga, and more one-turn success followed for Brown when Patternrecognition prevailed in the Cigar Mile on Dec. 1. Additionally, Good Magic won the Haskell on July 29 following competitive efforts in the first two legs of the Triple Crown, in which he was second in the Kentucky Derby and fourth in the Preakness.
Sistercharlie, who notched four Grade 1 victories in 2018, was one of two multiple Grade 1 winners for Brown on the year, with the other being A Raving Beauty, who took both the Just A Game and First Lady. A Raving Beauty concluded her year by running third behind Sistercharlie in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.
:: 2018 Eclipse Finalists: Profiles and photos for all categories
Brown had 16 individual horses win Grade 1 races in 2018, ranging in age from 2 to 6. Others included Summer Stakes winner Fog of War, Flower Bowl winner Fourstarcrook, United National winner Funtastic, Hollywood Derby winner Raging Bull, Arlington Million winner Robert Bruce, Queen Elizabeth II winner Rushing Fall, Matriarch winner Uni, and Competitionofideas, who won the final Grade 1 of the year, the American Oaks on Dec. 29.
Brown, 40, established a career high for wins in 2018, recording 224 victories from 839 starts, nearly 27 percent winners. He captured the spring and fall training titles at Belmont Park, the spring title at Aqueduct, and his 46 victories in securing a meet title at Saratoga over the summer were the most in track history.