Brown finally has Good Magic right where he wants him

ELMONT, N.Y. – When trainer Chad Brown made his first appearance in the Kentucky Derby, he had won a grand total of one graded stakes race on dirt. That was in 2013.

Five years later, as he prepares to make his fourth appearance in the Kentucky Derby, Brown has won 44 graded stakes races on dirt, including the Preakness, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Champagne, Hopeful, and Cigar Mile. Oh, and he’s also won the last two Eclipse Awards as the nation’s outstanding trainer.

“To this point, I’m proud to say if you took away all the turf races we won – which is a lot – and you just looked at the dirt races, I think that would be a fine career in itself for anybody up to this point,” said the 39-year-old Brown, who has won 848 turf races and 487 dirt races since going out on his own in late 2007. “Not that we’re complacent or satisfied with just that. It puts things in perspective that when you’re so dominant on the turf it may always overshadow some terrific accomplishments by my horses and staff on dirt.”

Perhaps Brown’s biggest accomplishment on dirt was winning last November’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with the then-maiden Good Magic. That victory, over two-time Grade 1 winner Bolt d’Oro, earned Good Magic an Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old male.

:: ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays, and analysis

Saturday, in the 144th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, Good Magic will attempt to become the third 2-year-old champion in the last four years to win this race.

Brown, who has run four horses in three Derbies, said there was no pressure from owners Bob Edwards or Barbara Banke to get Good Magic to the Derby despite his credentials as the juvenile champion. Foot issues that hampered Good Magic’s preparation leading up to his 3-year-old debut in the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream on March 3 nearly derailed Good Magic’s Derby hopes.

“When we fell a little bit behind this winter – just minor foot problems that resolved – I was always instructed do what’s right by the horse,” Brown said. “If we don’t make the Derby we still have a really nice horse. That said, I put him on a schedule to give him a chance to make the Derby, and he responded.”

Brown said he felt like he ran a short horse in the Fountain of Youth, a race in which Good Magic finished third, 4 1/2 lengths behind winner Promises Fulfilled.

“I, personally, didn’t have this horse ready the way I would have liked, but I felt like if I didn’t start him on that day that was the last chance to give him the opportunity to stay on the Derby trail,” Brown said.

The next target became the Blue Grass Stakes on April 7 at Keeneland. Brown favored that race over the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct because he felt Good Magic would appreciate the Keeneland surface and it would also cut down on shipping. When Brown got Good Magic to Keeneland, he saw a horse moving in the right direction. He ran like it, winning the Blue Grass by 1 1/2 lengths with something left in the tank.

“I feel this horse had to play a little bit of catch-up, being two works short going into the Fountain of Youth,” he said. “Then he caught up in time to win the Blue Grass, to just do enough to win. Now I see a horse that’s caught up and moving forward finally.”

Brown also sees a horse that can get the Derby distance of 1 1/4 miles.

“I’m not going to tell you the entire time I’ve trained him I’ve always thought that,” Brown said. “I feel more confident now in him getting a mile and a quarter than I ever have.”

Asked why he feels that way, Brown said: “His last race, how he’s come out of it, how he’s moving. I just see this horse looking for some more ground now.”

Brown knows full well how a foot problem can derail Derby dreams. He was an assistant to Bobby Frankel in 2003 when Empire Maker had his training interrupted by a bruised foot leading up to the Kentucky Derby. Empire Maker finished second to Funny Cide before coming back five weeks later to win the Belmont Stakes.

Brown said Frankel always told him that the trainer who makes the best adjustments often wins the most.

“I saw at that point in time him trying to make as many adjustments as he could with that horse knowing his back was flat up against the wall with a horse that was probably an hour the best but just couldn’t get there,” Brown said.

“I’d love to win this race someday for him, I really would, because it’s the only race that eluded him in one of the greatest training careers of all time. He’d be the first person I’d think of and give credit to because it’s the one race he couldn’t get.”

The tangibles that Brown saw in Good Magic to give him the confidence to run him in the Juvenile as a maiden are evident to Brown again in the weeks leading up to the Kentucky Derby. The way Good Magic is training and acting has Brown excited.

“I’m really confident in this horse that he’s going to run the best race of his life,” he said. “Whether that’s good enough to win the race or not, whether or not he gets some racing luck to go along with that, remains to be seen. I’m very, very confident that this horse is training really well, and we mapped out a good schedule to get here in fine shape and good form. When the gates open, it’s out of my hands.”