Brown pair have Oceanport field at their mercy
Go ahead and try to beat Chad Brown in Monmouth Park turf stakes, but over the last five years, it would’ve been a much better plan to join him.
Brown during that period has sent out 58 horses in Monmouth grass stakes, often running multiple starters in the same race, and has come away with 23 winners, a 40 percent strike rate that has been good for a robust $3.13 return-on-investment.
And the strike rate almost certainly is going higher after Sunday’s $100,000 Oceanport Stakes, the last-race feature on an 11-race program. Brown entered Analyze It and Sacred Life and confirmed in a text message he plans to start both horses. Paco Lopez has the mount on Sacred Life, Nik Juarez is on Analyze It in this 1 1/16-mile turf contest.
Both Brown starters won their only start at Monmouth, Analyze It capturing the Red Bank last September, Sacred Life turning in a powerhouse performance winning the 2020 Oceanport by four lengths.
Sacred Life appears to be the more likely winner Sunday. A six-year-old ridgling by Siyouni, Sacred Life has been campaigned sparingly since being imported from France during 2019, racing three times in 2020 and three times this season. He does like a course with some give in the ground, as was the case in the 2020 Oceanport and at Keeneland this spring, where he was a fine third in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile, won by stablemate Raging Bull in a superior performance.
But Sacred Life acts on firm going, as well, and 1 1/16 miles might be his very best trip. He exits a fourth-place finish opening day at Saratoga in Grade 3 Forbidden Apple, where he was beaten 1 1/4 lengths by front-running Rinaldi in a paceless affair.
Analyze It was cut out to be a turf star but a series of setbacks cost him the heart of his career, and at age 6, Analyze It has little chance to return to his very best form, which saw him nearly win the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Mile as a 3-year-old.
Analyze It’s poor showing this season in the Danger’s Hour Stakes at Belmont resulted from exercised induced cardiopulmonary hemorrhage in a race where Lasix wasn’t permitted, but Monmouth allows Lasix in every race save the Haskell Invitational and Analyze It will at least get first run on Sacred Life, likely at considerably longer odds.
Hawkish won the Cliff Hanger two seasons ago over the Monmouth course and was second to Sacred Life in the 2020 Oceanport, but his path to victory involves the Brown pair failing to fire. The rest of the field is, frankly, overmatched, and a Brown horse, as so often has been the case, should find the wire first in a Monmouth Park turf stakes.