Brown aiming two at Champagne

ELMONT, N.Y. – Chad Brown’s record-setting Saratoga meet included four wins with 2-year-olds on dirt, highlighted by Practical Joke’s neck victory in Monday’s Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes.

Practical Joke, who also recorded a maiden win at Saratoga, may not even have been Brown’s most impressive 2-year-old winner of the meet. Favorable Outcome won his debut by six lengths on Aug. 20, running six furlongs in 1:09.87.

Both horses are owned by Seth Klarman and Bill Lawrence, and both are being considered for the Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont Park on Oct. 8, Brown said Wednesday.

“So far, Practical Joke came out of his race in good order, looks well,” said Brown, who won a meet-record 40 races to earn his first Saratoga training title. “Both him and Favorable Outcome are being pointed to the Champagne. There’s a chance one of them goes off to the Breeders’ Futurity, but we’ll see how they’re doing as the races get closer.”

The Breeders’ Futurity is at Keeneland on Oct. 8. Both the Champagne and Breeders’ Futurity offer fees-paid berths to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita on Nov. 5, the year-end goal for both prospects.

“Absolutely, our goal is to get one or both to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile if we can,” Brown said. “We’ve always thought a lot of both horses, and we think they’ll stretch out fine.”

Practical Joke, a son of Into Mischief, came from seventh in a 10-horse field to win his debut. In the Hopeful, he sat an inside trip down the backstretch before being tipped three wide and running down the front-running pair of Royal Copy and Pretty Boy Flash. Practical Joke earned an 85 Beyer Speed Figure for the Hopeful.

Brown’s other 2-year-old dirt win came with Mirai, a New York-bred son of Trappe Shot who will be pointed to a New York-bred stakes such as the $200,000 New York Breeders’ Futurity at Finger Lakes on Oct. 1 or the $150,000 Bertram F. Bongard here on Oct. 2.