Brown has shot to turn tables on Pletcher

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After finishing second to Todd Pletcher for the last four years, trainer Chad Brown enters the final two weeks of the meet with a legitimate chance to win his first Saratoga trainers’ title.

Brown won two races on Monday’s card, including the $100,000 Summer Colony Stakes with Catch My Drift, giving him a 24-22 advantage over Pletcher with 12 cards left to run. Over the previous 12 racing cards, including Monday, Pletcher had won only three races.

Brown, who in 2012 won a personal-best 29 races at this meet, said he’s not concentrating on the trainers’ title.

“I don’t look at it,” Brown said Monday. “I’m aware of it but I don’t change my entries at all or do anything different and I think it’s really helped us have a really good meet.”

Over the last four years, Brown has won 22, 29, 24, and 23 races at Saratoga. The closest he came to Pletcher was last year when he lost by five.

“I don’t think there’s a mark you shoot for because you never know,” Brown said. “Todd has a lot of horses and he’s a great trainer, so you can’t even predict a number because it could be anything.

“But right now we’re having a real solid meet. I think we still have a good group of horses to run at the meet. You got to earn every win here. It’s so hard. We’ll keep firing away and putting the horses in the best spots we can.”