Bricks and Mortar may target Old Forester Turf Classic

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Chad Brown reported Sunday that Bricks and Mortar came out of his impressive victory in Saturday’s inaugural Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf in good order and could have the Grade 1 Old Forester Turf Classic at Churchill Downs as his next major goal.

“He’s doing very well, I’m very pleased with him this morning,” Brown said. “I’ll talk to Seth and Bill (owners Seth Klarman and William Lawrence) and see what they want to do moving forward, buy my feeling is I’d like to get him to the race on Derby Day at Churchill. If he’ll run between now and then, I’m not sure. But I’d say plans for this horse would likely include that race and a race like the Manhattan at Belmont Park.”

Bricks and Mortar won the 1 3/16-mile Pegasus Turf while making just his second start following a 14 1/2-month layoff. The victory was his sixth in eight career outings and second in a graded stakes. He also won the Grade 2 Hall of Fame at Saratoga during summer 2017.

“I know it sounds repetitive, but I just have to continue to thank the so many people who contributed to this horse being there yesterday to win the race the way he did,” Brown said. “Dr. Larry Bramlage, who brought him back from what looked like a career-ending injury. Ian Brennan and his staff at Stonestreet Farm for the job they did in all the time he spent at their facility rehabbing. My entire staff for delivering him to me in such great shape. And of course the owners, for being so patient and for being willing to invest all the money needed to get him back to the races again. If any of these stages didn’t go well, if all these teams at all these locations didn’t execute their talents the way they know how to, not only wouldn’t he have won the Pegasus, but he probably wouldn’t be running at all.”

While Bricks and Mortar did earn a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 106 for his performance in the Pegasus Turf, he did not earn the $3 million winner’s share of the purse as originally advertised for the event. In fact, the final value of the race, originally reported as $7 million but which would have actually grown to $8,050,000 had there been a full field of 12 starters, turned out to be only $6,708,329, of which just $2,656,250 went to Klarman and Lawrence.

“We tried to get 12 horses, with each owner putting up a $500,000 fee to enter,” explained Mike Rogers, a senior executive for The Stronach Group.

“We originally made a change to increase the purse earnings for the sixth- through 12th-place finishers to $350,000 to reduce the total risk in hopes of attracting more horses. The extra money was funded by The Stronach Group [and] would have brought the actual purse total to just over $8 million, assuming a full field.

"But there was a clause in the contracts signed by all competing owners that provided for a pre-determined calculation on how the purse would be redistributed if we did not attract 12 starters. With the reduction to be borne by the first five finishers, which is how the final purse total of just over $6.7 million and the ultimate winner’s share of that purse was calculated.”

Trainer Bill Mott offered no excuses for the disappointing performances turned in by his pair of Channel Maker and Yoshida, who finished fifth and sixth respectively in the Pegasus Turf. Yoshida went postward as the 2-1 favorite, returning to the turf after winning the Grade 1 Woodward and finishing fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic - both those races decided on dirt.

“The bottom line is Yoshida wasn’t making up much ground on them from the eighth pole to the wire and I’m not going to give him a huge excuse,” Mott said. “As it turns out, maybe he is going to be better on dirt. Channel Maker is a little hard to handle sometimes and sometimes will try to run up on heels, but it looked like eventually he got out and he had the clear length of the stretch to run them down and just couldn’t do it.”