Brown will keep his stable East-Coast focused, for now

East Coast-based trainer Chad Brown has had widespread success in recent years shipping horses to Southern California for major stakes on Memorial Day and Thanksgiving weekends.

Brown won the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita last May, and won four stakes at Del Mar last November.

This year, Brown will be absent from the major stakes at Santa Anita on Memorial Day weekend because of ongoing difficulties in transporting horses via plane. The Tex Sutton airline charter company is not currently operating because of regulatory issues.

Brown said Sunday that the alternative of shipping Raging Bull for the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile and Capital Structure for the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes on May 31 via Federal Express did not appeal to him.

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“I decided to cancel the trip,” he said. “I couldn’t work out adequate shipping for those horses.

“We decided to skip it for now. We’ll find races for both of them on the East Coast.”

Raging Bull was 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland last November. Raging Bull won his 2021 debut in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland on April 9 by an impressive two lengths.

Brown did not mention a goal for Raging Bull in coming weeks, but one option could be the Grade 3 Poker Stakes, a $250,000 race at a mile on turf at Belmont Park on June 20.

The Shoemaker Mile is expected to have a small field, including Smooth Like Strait and Whisper Not, and possibly Crossfirehurricane and Restrainedvengence. The winner receives a fees-paid berth to the BC Mile at Del Mar on Nov. 6.