For Brown and Pletcher, an East Coast rivalry heads west

DEL MAR, Calif. – The most money that horses trained by Todd Pletcher ever earned in a season was $28,116,097. The year was 2007, the same time a young fellow named Chad Brown went out on his own as a head trainer.

Sure, out West there is Bob, as in Baffert, but on the East Coast, from Florida to New York, it is Todd and Chad, Chad and Todd. Pletcher won the Kentucky Derby this year with Always Dreaming and the Belmont with Tapwrit. Brown won his first Triple Crown race, the Preakness, with Cloud Computing.

Neither gentleman, both exceedingly careful with public statements, would be imprudent enough to baldly say so, but they are rivals.

Brown turns 39 in December. Pletcher turned 50 in June. A lot of folks in the racing universe would suggest Brown’s star is brightening, Pletcher’s dimming.

“Perhaps the hottest trainer in the business,” begins Brown’s official Breeders’ Cup biography this year.

Pletcher’s starts off facing toward the past: “Pletcher ranks fifth among all Breeders’ Cup winning trainers.”

The composition of the two-day Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar this week lends force to narrative. Brown has 12 runners in eight races over the two days. Pletcher sends out three runners in three races.

“This would be the least we’ve had in a while, but it’s mainly about timing,” Pletcher said. “We had a number of horses we had to put away, like Tapwrit and Always Dreaming. Keen Ice, he didn’t quite make it. That’s three alone, and with some of the 2-year-olds, they’re later-developing types. Mike Repole reminded me the other day when I was talking about our number of Breeders’ Cup starters that we’ve got wins in the Derby and the Belmont and training titles at Gulfstream and Saratoga this year, so don’t be too disappointed.”

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Pletcher has gone 9-13-14 from his 128 Breeders’ Cup starters. Brown is 8-7-5 from 58 starters. Last year at Santa Anita, New Money Honey won the Juvenile Fillies Turf for Brown, who otherwise had seconditis: Flintshire, Lady Eli, and Wavell Avenue all finished second in Breeders’ Cup races.

Pletcher had his first Breeders’ Cup horse in 1998 and won his first Breeders’ Cup race in 2004. For Brown, it all happened fast. He’d been out on his own for less than a year when his first Breeders’ Cup runner, Maram, won the 2008 Juvenile Fillies Turf.

“Right off the bat, looking back, it was like a little glimpse of what was to come,” Brown said. “We found her niche in short order and got her to the race she was supposed to be in. Now, did tons of stake horses flood the barn after that? No, but it opened up a lot of doors. Of all the Breeders’ Cup pictures in my Saratoga office, there’s a reason hers has the biggest frame.”

Of Brown’s eight BC wins, all but Wavell Avenue’s came on turf. That feeds the pigeonholing Brown has otherwise generally overcome – that he’s a turf trainer. Brown has runners this year in both 2-year-old dirt races, the Dirt Mile, and the Filly and Mare Sprint.

“I’d like to think that’s in the past,” Brown said. “We’ve had a lot of success on the dirt at the highest levels. As far as being a successful dirt trainer? I just want to be known as a successful trainer.”

There’s a sense that Brown has made inroads into Pletcher’s dominance in young dirt talent. Pletcher has the ultra-promising 2-year-old Montauk, who is skipping the Breeders’ Cup, but Brown has Good Magic, quietly a major player in the BC Juvenile, and Grade 1 Frizette winner Separationofpowers, who runs in the Juvenile Fillies. The Pletcher-trained Hazit starts in the Juvenile but faded to fifth behind Good Magic’s second in the Champagne.

Pletcher points out that his numbers have held steady. He has 160 horses currently in racetrack training, and on raw starters, Pletcher still holds an edge over Brown, having won 220 races with 908 starters this year through Tuesday, to 192 from 697 for Brown. The 2016 totals were Brown, 182 for 763, and Pletcher, 274 for 1,213.

However, Brown won 42 graded stakes during 2016 to Pletcher’s 32, and this year Brown already has 42 such wins to Pletcher’s 23. As diverse as his stable may have become, Brown’s graded-stakes edge is fueled by his embarrassment of riches in multiple turf divisions: 28 of his graded stakes wins this year were on grass.

“He and his team have done a great job of developing a very powerful stable,” Pletcher said. “I give him a lot of credit.”

Brown, clawing his way to a foothold eight or nine years ago, surely was keenly aware of Pletcher’s long shadow in New York, the land Brown sought to conquer. But Brown said he never considered Pletcher a rival.

“I honestly never felt that way,” Brown said. “I’ve only tried to improve my skill set, not attain a certain number of wins or prize money or a ranking amongst my peers. It’s more than me and Todd. As far as a relationship, it’s not a real personal one between us, but I feel like there’s mutual respect there. If we talk occasionally, it’s mostly over industry issues where it’s important to see how each other feel.”

Brown would be widely expected to at least equal Pletcher’s nine Breeders’ Cup wins if not surpass the mark this year. That said, the post-position draw was unkind to many of Brown’s runners. Separationofpowers has post 13 in the Juvenile Fillies, while Carina Mia has post 1 and Paulassilverlining post 2, both tricky, in the Filly and Mare Sprint. Rushing Fall has post 11 for the Juvenile Fillies Turf, and Practical Joke is marooned in post 10 for the Dirt Mile.

Merely filling the Breeders’ Cup starting gate with your runners doesn’t mean glory awaits. Plectcher could tell Brown about that.

“I went 0 for 17 in 2006,” Pletcher said. “Bringing numbers doesn’t guarantee anything.”

But here’s one guarantee: However the balance of power tilts, the numbers say it’ll still be Chad and Todd, Todd and Chad for a long time to come.