Brown increasingly confident Bricks and Mortar can handle BC Turf distance

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown pre-entered 10 horses Monday for the two-day Breeders Cup World Championships at Santa Anita on Nov. 1-2 and said that while he pre-entered Bricks and Mortar in two races, he is leaning toward starting him in the $4 million Turf rather than the $2 million Mile.

Bricks and Mortar, 5 for 5 this year and a candidate for Horse of the Year, has never run 1 1/2 miles, the distance of the Turf, but the more Brown has watched the horse train, the more he thinks he’ll handle it despite having not run since Aug. 10.

“He’s really settled in his works,” Brown said. “I think he’ll be able to settle enough and finish at a mile and a half where I wasn’t so sure about that [before]. I’ve gotten my head around this layoff. At first I was not thinking about it off that kind of layoff. If he just gallops around there and runs the last three-eighths of the race, he’ll be fine.”

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Brown said he thought about Sistercharlie winning last year’s BC Filly and Mare Turf off a similar layoff that Bricks and Mortar faces.

“That entered my mind, too,” Brown said.

Sistercharlie was pre-entered for a repeat bid in the $2 million Filly and Mare Turf where she will seek a seventh consecutive Grade 1 victory.

On Sunday at Belmont, Bricks and Mortar worked five furlongs in 1:00.15 over the inner turf course. Bricks and Mortar worked outside of Without Parole, a Group 1 winner at Royal Ascot in 2018 who is winless in two starts this year and who was pre-entered in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. The pair went the first quarter in 24.86 seconds and their final three furlongs in 35.29 seconds.

Sistercharlie also worked Sunday, breezing a half-mile in 48.77 seconds in company with Thais, who also is pre-entered in the Filly and Mare Turf where she figures to be a pacesetter for Sistercharlie.

Uni, the winner of the Grade 1 First Lady in her most recent start, was supplemented to the Breeders’ Cup Mile. On Sunday, she worked a half-mile in 49.78 seconds in company with the 3-year-old stakes-winning turf horse Digital Age.

“Uni is doing great right now,” Brown said.

A late addition to Brown’s pre-entrant lineup is Princesa Caroline, who was pre-entered in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Princesa Caroline, a 3 1/2-length debut winner on Sept. 28, is a half-sister to Lady Eli, who won the 2014 Juvenile Fillies Turf. Princesa Caroline is by American Pharoah.

“She’s come back and worked fabulous two times since her maiden win,” Brown said. “Don’t know if we get in, but she looks like she’s developing rapidly. Her debut was good and she’s really moved forward off of it, and she’s Lady Eli’s half-sister. She’s got all the makings of a really talented horse in this division. If she can get in, we’d like to run her.”

Brown, who has won the Juvenile Fillies Turf three straight years and five times overall, also has Selflessly, winner of the Grade 2 Miss Grillo, for the Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Brown pre-entered Structor, winner of the Grade 3 Pilgrim Stakes, in the Juvenile Turf and Dunbar Road, winner of the Grade 1 Alabama, and Wow Cat, runner-up in last year’s Distaff, in the Distaff.