Brown, as usual, fully loaded for rich turf races

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Chart the typical evolution of a training career, and the plot line will look jagged. For every burst of success, there are periods of struggle, when a stable runs in place or loses ground.

But if the arc of Chad Brown’s career training Thoroughbreds ever has pointed anywhere but up, it’s happened in the dead of night and behind closed doors.

Brown started his first four horses in 2007, and in every calendar year since then, his stable has earned more purse money than the year before. Every year until 2014, Brown won more races than the previous year, and last year’s win total, 147, was just one fewer than in 2013.

With 4 1/4 months left in 2015, Brown already has sent out 121 winners, and barring the unforeseen, he’ll set a new personal mark in that category. It’s not September yet, and Brown’s stable earnings are pushing $10 million for the year. He already has won a career-best 19 graded stakes this season, and Brown can add to that total Saturday at Arlington, where he has six horses running in the four major turf stakes here.

Six horses – an entire string for mom-and-pop outfits. Brown has three entrants in the Arlington Million alone, and that comes just a couple of weeks after he ran four 3-year-old grass horses in the Hall of Fame Stakes at Saratoga. No barn in North America can approach Brown’s turf firepower. He has the morning-line favorite for the Million, Big Blue Kitten, as well as the race’s second choice, Slumber. Shining Copper is entered as a pacemaker for Big Blue Kitten.

“We’ve had a lot of quality over the years, but currently we’re getting higher-quality horses than we’ve ever had,” Brown said by phone from Saratoga this week. “It continues to improve, and we’re very grateful.”

Brown, 36, won a Breeders’ Cup race, the Juvenile Fillies Turf, with Maram in 2008, his first full year training after five years spent with the legendary trainer Bobby Frankel. Educated and well spoken, young, focused and ambitious, Brown attracted clients like metal to a magnet. Even now, his stable swelled to capacity, they are breaking down the door to get in.

“It’s a dream job, working with wonderful people every day, magnificent animals,” Brown said. “Dealing with the challenges can be frustrating. Not every day is a great day, but overall, it’s an amazing job.”

This summer hasn’t been all gossamer and gold. Lady Eli, the wonderful 3-year-old turf filly Brown has suggested might be the best horse he has trained, stepped on a nail and developed laminitis days after winning the July 4 Belmont Oaks. By the first of August, Lady Eli’s condition stabilized, the question shifting from whether she could be saved to whether she might race again. But in the Aug. 1 Bowling Green, Innovation Economy, a rising turf star, broke down and was euthanized, a second bitter pill.

“The weekend we had when Lady Eli won the Belmont Oaks and then Big Blue Kitten and Slumber ran one-two in the [United Nations], and then on Tuesday, with Lady Eli developing laminitis – that’s about as high and low as you can get,” Brown said.

Look at Slumber’s form and you can see why owners want into Brown’s stable. By Cacique, who finished second in the 2004 Million for Frankel, Slumber was imported from England late in 2011, finishing fourth in the Hollywood Derby. He won a couple of allowance races, then went on a nine-race losing streak, teasing with a series of close losses in high-end grass stakes.

The first six of those losses came for trainer Bill Mott, but when Juddmonte Farms sold Slumber last fall, he wound up in Brown’s barn. Two good races – both losses –were followed by a lesser fifth-place finish in the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic on Derby Day, after which Brown began racing Slumber in blinkers and unearthed a new horse. The 7-year-old Slumber ran the race of his life in winning the Grade 1 Manhattan and validated that performance with a troubled second in the United Nations.

Big Blue Kitten also is 7, and while Slumber was trying graded stakes in England, Big Blue Kitten set up shop as a maiden claimer. Three times in 2011 he ran in claiming races, but by race 6, he was a graded stakes winner.

“This has always been a poor breeze horse,” Brown said. “But he has as much heart as any horse I’ve ever trained. Observing him has taught me a lot about heart and determination. Sometimes you can’t really measure it until you see it in the afternoon.”

Brown also runs Hyper in the American St. Leger and two horses in the Beverly D., Watsdachances and the aging star Stephanie’s Kitten. The latter was a leading lady of North American turf in 2014, but after two disappointing losses, even Brown wonders if her best days have passed.

“I’ll be as curious as anyone to see which Stephanie’s Kitten shows up. In training, I don’t see a horse any worse for wear,” Brown said.

Brown won the Beverly D. in 2011 with Stacelita, and in 2013, the Brown-trained Real Solution finished second in the Million, placed first through disqualification. There are real chances to add to those Arlington totals Saturday – and Chad Brown does not miss many chances.

A previous version of this article misstated the number of horses Chad Brown entered in the Hall of Fame Stakes at Saratoga. He entered five horses but ran four.