Blazing Sevens seeks to emulate sire in BC Juvenile
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - When Blazing Sevens rallied from last to win Saturday’s $500,000 Champagne Stakes by 3 1/4 lengths, it gave trainer Chad Brown his fourth victory in the last seven runnings of the storied Grade 1 dirt stakes for juveniles. He also has a second-place finish in the race over that span.
“Not bad for a turf barn,” Brown quipped Sunday morning.
Blazing Sevens will now look to give Brown his second victory in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland on Nov. 5. Blazing Sevens is a son of the Brown-trained Good Magic, the 2017 Champagne runner-up who came back to win the BC Juvenile as a maiden.
Unlike his previous Champagne winners - Jack Christopher, Practical Joke and Complexity - Blazing Sevens gives Brown the impression he is a true two-turn horse, one who should relish the 1 1/16 miles of the Juvenile at Keeneland.
“Just his demeanor, the way he moves, good mind on him,” Brown said when asked why he felt Blazing Sevens was a two-turn horse. “He’s a big, stretchy horse, has a big stride on him. He settles nice, he always obeys the commands of the rider. He’s been super easy to train.”
Blazing Sevens was sent off as the longest shot in the field in the Champagne because the race was run over a sloppy track, the type of surface he didn’t handle in the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga.
“On a different track, a different type of wet track these young horses, you’re always learning about them,” Brown said. “They’re going to catch different surfaces. They’re inexperienced horses, you’re going to learn a lot as you go, sometimes it goes your way, sometimes you’re going to have to retreat. [Saturday], it went our way and this horse moved forward.”
Blazing Sevens, who earned a 91 Beyer Speed Figure for his Champagne victory, will move to Keeneland by next weekend to continue preparations for the Juvenile.
Verifying, second in the Champagne, will ship back to trainer Brad Cox’s Churchill Downs barn this week and Cox will evaluate how the colt trains before a decision is made on his Juvenile status.
“I thought he ran well, he probably wasn’t on the greatest part of the track,” Cox said of the Champagne. “It’s not certain what his future holds at the moment.”
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