Brown goes from strength to strength at Belmont

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Coming off his first Saratoga training title, Chad Brown will look to get started on his fifth consecutive Belmont Park fall-meet title when he runs Ava’s Kitten in Friday’s $100,000 Christiecat Stakes.

The Christiecat, for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs on turf, is the first of 42 stakes to be run during the 38-day Belmont fall stand, which runs from Friday through Oct. 30.

With one day to go, Brown had set a record for wins at a single Saratoga meet with 39 through Sunday, eclipsing the previous mark of 38 set by Todd Pletcher in 2011, the year after Saratoga expanded to a 40-day meet.

Ava’s Kitten was responsible for one of those wins for Brown, successfully shortening up to 5 1/2 furlongs to win a second-level allowance race here Aug. 20.

“She sprinted well,” Brown said. “We’ll keep her sprinting for the time being.”

Javier Castellano will ride Ava’s Kitten from post 5 in the nine-horse field.

Trainer Tom Proctor, who had an excellent Saratoga meet himself, sends out the uncoupled entry of Most Beautiful, a European import who makes her U.S. debut, and Coco as in Chanel, who won a minor turf-sprint stakes at Pimlico in June.

The others entered are Athena’s Aegis, Coastal Sea, Sky My Sky, Tizanillusion, Malibu Stacy, and Ultra Brat.

First post for Friday’s nine-race card is 1:30 p.m. Eastern.