Brown considers sending Miles D to Saudi Cup in February
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Chad Brown has yet to participate in the lucrative races in the Middle East. That could be about to change.
While Brown is far from committing to it, he will give strong consideration to pointing Miles D, winner of Saturday’s $150,000 Discovery at Aqueduct, to the $20 million Saudi Cup in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 26.
“I’m never looking to send my horses to other continents to run,” Brown said Sunday morning outside his Belmont Park barn. “I stick to my circuits, but that race has been on my mind if I had the right-styled horse.”
“Those races over there,” Brown continued, referring to the $12 million Dubai World Cup on March 26 as well, “this might be the kind of horse that kind of fits for me maybe trying one of those races. Although he’s had a couple of hard races, he is lightly raced. He hasn’t had that many starts, he didn’t have to do battle in the Triple Crown, he doesn’t have a ton of miles on him.”
The Discovery was just the sixth career start and fifth of 2021 for Miles D, a son of Curlin who is owned by Peter Brant and Robert LaPenta. In August, he finished third, 5 1/4 lengths behind Essential Quality, in the Travers at Saratoga. Brown said that race “might have knocked him back a tick.”
But following an allowance win, in which he basically just ran hard for the last quarter-mile, Brown feels Miles D “started to go forward again. The weight and the strength of him yesterday when I put the saddle on him, I had a good feeling at that point.”
Brown also liked the surge Miles D put in during the final furlong of the race to get past the favorite Speaker’s Corner, whom he beat by a half-length. Miles D covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:52.44 and was assigned a 102 Beyer Speed Figure.
Brown said Miles D would ship to Payson Park, a training center in South Florida, in the coming week. He would discuss with Brant and LaPenta plans for the future and train accordingly.
“It was a nice win yesterday, he beat a good horse, he ran a good number, he’s got some more development to go,” Brown said.
One lucrative race on this continent is the $3 million Pegasus at Gulfstream on Jan. 29, though the prospect of facing Knicks Go and Life Is Good didn’t particularly entice Brown.
“There is the pace scenario that looks good but those are serious horses, I’d have to think about that on that track,” Brown said.
Arrest Me Red points to Saudi
If Miles D were to travel to Saudi Arabia he could have company on the flight in the form of Arrest Me Red, who won Saturday’s $150,0000 Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship for his fifth win in as many tries sprinting on turf. He has lost once routing on turf and once sprinting on dirt.
Trainer Wesley Ward said Sunday that Arrest Me Red will be pointed to the $1.5 million 1351 Turf Sprint on the Saudi Cup undercard.
“He’s kind of the ‘now’ sprinter, so we’re thinking about that race for him in Saudi Arabia just because he’s so good right now,” said Ward, who trains Arrest Me Red for the Lael Stable of Roy and Gretchen Jackson. “He scoped perfectly clean with no Lasix, he looks like one that will be a candidate for that.”
Ward said his other turf sprinters, such as Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Golden Pal, are getting a break.
Arrest Me Red was entered to run in the Breeder’s Cup Turf Sprint, but scratched due to a foot issue.
On Saturday, Arrest Me Red scored a front-running, neck victory over Pulsate in the Aqueduct Turf Sprint, a race in which he was vigorously hand-ridden by Paco Lopez. He ran six furlongs in 1:09.43 and earned a 95 Beyer Speed Figure.
“It looked like he won without being hit at all, if you get after him there’s a lot more there when you do that,” Ward said. “I didn’t do a lot with him when he came back from California to Keeneland, so he might have been on the short side.”
Ward said Arrest Me Red would likely be based at the Payson Park training center in Florida as a way to get acclimated to the type of climate he would encounter in Saudi Arabia.