Bricks and Mortar tops Chad Brown trifecta in Manhattan

ELMONT, N.Y. – The Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott stood at the end of the tunnel leading between the paddock and racing oval at Belmont Park waiting for his horse to come back and looking resigned. Channel Maker had just run a solid fourth in the Manhattan Stakes, but as Mott watched his own steed cross the wire, there were three others in front of him trained by the same guy. Yes, Chad Brown has made a habit the last several years of sweeping top placings in graded turf stakes, but this was ridiculous. Victorious Bricks and Mortar was followed home Saturday in the Grade 1, $1 million Manhattan, one of the top grass races in North America, by Robert Bruce and Raging Bull, all three residing under the same Belmont Park barn roof.

“It ranks right up there,” Brown said, asked where the Manhattan sweep fit in his pantheon of accomplishment. “I’d have to look at it and digest it, but I hold this race in such high regard. We point to it every year.”

Let’s not obscure the big picture, however, by fitting the top three Manhattan finishers into the same snapshot: Bricks and Mortar, who paid a mere $3.30 to win, was the star here and has emerged this season as one of the true standouts in American racing.

He has now won five races in a row, capturing an allowance race in late December, his first race in more than 14 months, and since has reeled off victories in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf, the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial, the Grade 1 Turf Classic, and now the Manhattan. Bricks and Mortar, a 5-year-old horse owned by Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence, won the first four races of his career at age 3, then took two stakes losses, both by less than one length, before his long layoff. Eight wins and two thirds from 10 starts is remarkable, but Bricks and Mortar is very close to being unbeaten.

“This horse is so good, man,” said Irad Ortiz, who was aboard Bricks and Mortar on Saturday for the fifth race in a row.

Bricks and Mortar, by Giant’s Causeway out of Beyond the Waves, by Ocean Crest, was headed for the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby at the end of his 3-year-old season when he developed a stringhalt walk, a hind-end gait abnormality that Brown said was “inhibiting his training.” Bricks and Mortar eventually was diagnosed with a check ligament injury that required what Brown called a “complicated surgery” to repair. Brown said there was no guarantee the operation would succeed, and at one point during Bricks and Mortar’s rehabilitation with Ian Brennan at Stonestreet Farm in Florida, he didn’t think Bricks and Mortar would race again.

Boy is he back.

Brown had seen nothing but positive signs from Bricks and Mortar in daily training, but the early start to the season and five races without much break is a lot to ask of a horse racing at a level this high. Bricks and Mortar responded by running the best race of his life.

Ortiz positioned him a couple of paths off the rail and in sixth around the first of two turns and down the long backstretch while some crazy stuff happened up front. Catcho En Die set off to lead through an opening quarter-mile in 23.68 seconds, which wasn’t unexpected, but turning onto the backstretch there came Qurbaan, who typically makes a late run, zooming off to a 2 1/2-length lead as the half went in 48.73, three-quarters in 1:12.24.

Qurbaan’s unexpected acceleration first spread the field but the horses bunched back up again going around the far turn, Ortiz latching onto Channel Maker’s back and getting a tow into the homestretch. He steered Bricks and Mortar outside Channel Maker and his mount delivered a ferocious punch, going his final quarter mile on the Belmont timer in about 22.30 seconds. Final time for the 1 1/4-miles on firm turf was 1:58.11.

“The last couple races he’s been on soft turf,” Ortiz said. “Today, we had firm turf and he had a little more acceleration. His kick, you can feel it a little more.”

Robert Bruce, on a jockey change to Jose Ortiz, rebounded from a poor showing on soft ground he really dislikes in the Fort Marcy Stakes, his 2019 debut, to finish a fine second, probably running about to his best form from 2018. Robert Bruce switched outside with about a furlong-and-a-half to run, just as Bricks and Mortar was whizzing past him. He was beaten 1 1/2 lengths while finishing three-quarters of a length in front of Raging Bull, who, despite racing with blinkers, was behind Robert Bruce early and farther off the lead than either Brown or jockey Javier Castellano anticipated.

Channel Maker, a solid fourth a half-length behind Raging Bull, was followed at the finish by Channel Cat, Bandua, Olympico (who apparently needs soft turf for his best), Qurbaan, and Catcho En Die.

Robert Bruce won the 2018 Arlington Million and is likely to make his next start in that the Aug. 11 renewal of that race, but to win it again he’ll have the formidable task of turning the tables on Bricks and Mortar, who also is expected to go for the Million.

Bill Mott isn’t the only one staring with some disbelief at Brown’s awesome firepower in nearly every American turf division.

Sometimes, like in the Manhattan, it seems the only person who can beat Chad Brown in these races is Chad Brown.