Campaign, Brown Storm will try to right ship in San Marcos

ARCADIA, Calif. – Brown Storm and Campaign had forgettable autumn campaigns last year, ending successful years with disappointing performances in graded stakes.

Brown Storm, a two-time stakes winner in Chile, was fifth and sixth at Santa Anita and Del Mar in his first two starts in this country. Campaign, a two-time stakes winner in 2019, was eased as the 3-5 favorite in the Grade 2 Marathon Stakes at 1 3/4 miles at Santa Anita on Nov. 1.

Both can revive their careers in Saturday’s Grade 2 San Marcos Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Santa Anita. The $200,000 San Marcos Stakes will be the first start on turf for Campaign since a third in the Grade 3 Kentucky Turf Cup at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 7.

In Kentucky, Campaign finished 3 3/4 lengths behind Zulu Alpha, who was later fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf here on Nov. 2 and won the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf at Gulfstream Park last Saturday.

Campaign won the Grade 3 Cougar II Handicap at 1 1/2 miles on dirt last July, but needs a surface switch, trainer John Sadler said.

“He was a little sour on the long distance dirt races,” Sadler said. “We’ll start him on the turf.”

Brown Storm was second and third in two Group 1 races at 1 1/4 miles on turf in Chile last April and May, but did not show that sort of ability when fifth in the restricted Lure Stakes at a mile on turf in his American debut on Oct. 31.

“The race was too short,” trainer Michael McCarthy said.

Brown Storm was later sixth of 10 in the Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup at 1 1/2 miles at Del Mar on Dec. 1, racing as close as three lengths from the front with a quarter-mile remaining.

“I had a funny trip last time,” McCarthy said. “Going into the three-eighths pole, he was fourth and coming out he was ninth.”

The San Marcos Stakes is led by Oscar Dominguez and United, who were first and second in the Hollywood Turf Cup. United, second to eventual Horse of the Year Bricks and Mortar in the BC Turf, is likely to be favored. The projected field also includes Cleopatra’s Strike, who won the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship here in September

There are three stakes on Saturday’s program at Santa Anita, including the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes, a $200,000 race for older horses at 1 1/8 miles, and the Grade 3 Robert Lewis Stakes, a $100,000 race for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles.

The undefeated Thousand Words will have his 2020 debut against a small field in the Lewis Stakes. He won the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity in December for trainer Bob Baffert.

Baffert will start Roadster in the San Pasqual, a key prep to the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on March 7. Roadster won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby last April and was second to Omaha Beach in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at seven furlongs on Dec. 28.

The San Pasqual has a projected field of nine, including King Abner and Midcourt, who were second and third in the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes at 1 1/16 miles here on Dec. 28.