Brown has three shots at extending streak in Manhattan
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown has won four of the last five – and three consecutive – runnings of the Grade 1 Manhattan Stakes at 1 1/4 miles over the Belmont turf.
Brown likely will seek another victory in the $1 million race with the uncoupled trio of Time Test, Beach Patrol, and Wake Forest. They are among what is expected to be a 10-horse field for the race when entries are drawn Wednesday.
Brown won the Manhattan last year with Flintshire, who was sent to the U.S. by Juddmonte Farms seeking firm ground. The same story line exists for Time Test, a multiple group-level stakes winner in Britain who has come to the U.S. in search of firm footing.
Time Test caught a yielding Belmont turf course in the Grade 3 Fort Marcy and was upset by a nose by Smooth Daddy.
Time Test has found firm footing for his two most recent workouts on the Belmont grass, including on Sunday, when he went five furlongs in company with Wake Forest. Both were credited with a final time of 1:01.75, though Time Test was taken under a stranglehold late by Javier Castellano in order to prevent the horse from doing too much.
“He’s always been a good work horse, but the last two weeks he’s gotten firm ground, he’s really trained well,” Brown said.
Wake Forest won the Grade 3 Mac Diarmida in his 7-year-old debut at Gulfstream in March before finishing last of five in the Man o’ War, which was run over yielding turf.
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Beach Patrol hasn’t won since taking the Grade 1 Secretariat last August at Arlington. He has four consecutive second-place finishes, including a half-length loss to Divisidero in the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day. (Beach Patrol was disqualified to fourth in the Grade 1 Gulfsftream Park Turf in February.)
Others expected to be entered in the Manhattan include Divisidero, World Approval, Ascend, Jay Gatsby, Sadler’s Joy, Potemkin, and Applicator.
– additional reporting by Marcus Hersh