Brown closes in on first Spa training title

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher has come to terms with the fact that he won’t win his seventh straight Saratoga training title and his 13th overall. Chad Brown is slowly allowing himself to believe he will win his first.

Brown, who has finished second to Pletcher the last five years, entered the final four days of the meet with a 36-27 lead over Pletcher. Brown won his 37th race of the meet when Munchkin Money won Friday’s second race. Brown missed a Saratoga record-tying 38th win when Dujac lost a nose decision in race 3.

Pletcher is a 12-time leading trainer at Saratoga and has won the last six titles, including a record 38 victories in 2011.

“Going into this meet, I felt like we were going to struggle to win the training title,” Pletcher said. “I think overall, we’ve had a good meet. We’ve had better, but we’ve certainly had worse. ”

Pletcher said a 2-year-old crop that “wasn’t particularly strong last year is still affecting us a bit. But we’ve got a better crop of 2-year olds this year, which is encouraging. But hat’s off to Chad and his team. They’ve done a great job and won a lot of races.”

Brown is a little reticent to discuss winning the training title until it’s official. In 2015, he had a four-win lead entering the final week and lost by three victories.

“As a team, we just decided early on, having been down this road before, having been close to winning a training title or close to winning an Eclipse Award a couple of years ago, to focus on the daily process of doing the right thing, managing the horses, and trying to complete our mission, which was to have a very solid meet from start to finish,” Brown said. “And it turned out really well this year, where last year we won one race the last six days of the meet.”

Of Brown’s 37 wins, 11 have come in stakes, including the Grade 1 Diana with Dacita and the Grade 1 Sword Dancer with Flintshire.

– additional reporting by Mike Welsch