Brown enters five for Hall of Fame Stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown entered five horses on Monday for the $200,000 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes but remained undecided about how many of that group actually will compete in Friday’s Grade 2 turf event for 3-year-olds.

Brown’s contingent in the 1 1/16-mile Hall of Fame consists of Croninthebarbarian (Corey Lanerie), Night Prowler (Javier Castellano), Startup Nation (John Velazquez), Takeover Target (Irad Ortiz Jr.), and Winter Springs (Julien Leparoux). Croninthebarbarian is coming off a third-place finish in the Manila Stakes. Night Prowler was beaten a head by Force the Pass in the Grade 3 Penn Mile in his last start. Startup Nation and Takeover Target finished third and fifth behind Force the Pass in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby, while Winter Springs has yet to make a start in the U.S.

The remainder of the field is World Approval, Sailthehighsees, Vision Perfect, A Lot, High Noon Rider, Courtier, and Gorgeous Bird, with Pleasant Outlook on the also-eligible list.

“I’m going to enter five, take a look, speak to all my clients, and see what they want to do,” Brown said shortly before making his entries Monday. “There are not many options right now to run them anywhere. It’s either here or the Secretariat, and this particular group of horses, I don’t know if any of them really want to go a mile and one-quarter, especially in that level of race.”