Chad Brown's great weekend puts him in Eclipse trainer picture

ELMONT, N.Y. – Chad Brown was champion trainer four years in a row, between 2016 and 2019. Brad Cox interrupted Brown’s reign, winning the Eclipse for leading trainer in 2020 and 2021. But Brown has returned with a vengeance, and after an incredible Belmont Stakes weekend has the inside track on another Eclipse in 2022.

Brown won five graded stakes Thursday through Saturday at Belmont Park: The Grade 2 Wonder Again on June 9; the Grade 1 New York on June 10; and the Grade 1 Just a Game, the Grade 1 Woody Stephens and the Grade 1 Manhattan on June 11. After that skein, Brown’s graded-stakes mark so far this year stands at 80-23-22-12, and those 23 winners are eight more than second-place Cox. Through June 11, Brown ranked fourth in total wins with 115, and the three trainers with more victories have run between 100 and 750 more horses so far this year. Brown is second in earnings, just short of $13 million, to the $14,443,973 of Steve Asmussen, who has 1,105 starters to Brown’s 350.

Brown’s numbers during this same period in 2021 pale in comparison to 2022. Through June 12, 2021, Brown had won 11 graded stakes, 12 fewer than this season, and 82 races overall, 33 behind his current pace, and while running just 18 more horses this year compared to last.

Brown’s Grade 1 winners over the weekend included Bleecker Street, who finished with a flourish to capture the New York; Regal Glory, currently leader of the older-female turf division, in the Just a Game; Tribhuvan, who gave Brown his eighth win in the Manhattan; and Jack Christopher, whose 10-length romp in the Woody Stephens produced a 107 Beyer Speed Figure. The 107 is the highest figure so far this year for a 3-year-old dirt horse – and consider that Brown also trains Zandon, winner of the Blue Grass and third in the Kentucky Derby, and Early Voting, who got the season’s second-highest 3-year-old Beyer, 105, winning the Preakness.

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That means Brown’s barn now houses three of North America’s top five 3-year-olds, the others being the Asmussen-trained Epicenter and Belmont winner Mo Donegal. He also has all the best older female grass horses, and ran one-two in the Manhattan, annually one of the preeminent male turf routes, with Adhamo finishing second to Tribhuvan.

Brown was asked if his current stable, taken as a whole, was the strongest of his career. “I don’t have a Bricks and Mortar or a Rushing Fall,” said Brown, naming two champion turf horses, “although Regal Glory is getting there. I guess if you look at it like a roster, top to bottom, it could be.”

Jack Christopher came out of the Woody Stephens bright and happy, Brown said, and remains on course for the Grade 1 Haskell on July 23 at Monmouth Park. Zandon, who had his first post-Derby work last weekend, is aimed toward the July 30 Jim Dandy as a prep for the Travers. Early Voting, if all goes well, will run in one of those races.

Early Voting, who hasn’t worked since the Preakness, and Zandon were scheduled to breeze Sunday at Belmont, but their works were pushed back to Monday after an unexpected amount of rain fell during training, causing the Belmont maintenance crew to seal the main track and Brown to postpone works and send his later sets to the Belmont training track.

Regal Glory, just this year hitting her career peak at age 6, came out of her 3 1/2-length Just a Game win in good shape and is bound for a race against males in the Fourstardave at Saratoga. A win there, coupled with the Just a Game and the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland, will make Regal Glory a formidable factor in Eclipse balloting, regardless of what else happens in the division. Regal Glory does have an affinity for the Keeneland grass course, site of this year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile.

In Italian, whose strong pressure on fast pacesetting Leggs Galore helped along Regal Glory’s romp, could join Bleecker Street and Rougir as starters in the Grade 1 Diana over 1 1/8 miles on July 16 at Saratoga. Speak of the Devil, an even-money fourth in the Just a Game, took on one of the Brown barn's only weekend missteps. “She didn’t fire for some reason. We’ll take a couple days to evaluate her,” he said.

Rougir also disappointed in the 1 1/4-mile New York, where she was fifth as the odds-on favorite after an impressive North American debut last month in the 1 1/16-mile Beaugay. “I’m going to cut her back in the Diana. She’ll be ready, especially if [the turf] is a little soft.”

Tribhuvan, who got a career-best 108 Beyer Speed Figure after going wire to wire winning the Manhattan by 3 1/2 lengths, will try to win the United Nations, part of the Haskell undercard, for the second year in a row. Adhamo, who encountered traffic in the Manhattan and finished well for second, doesn’t have an obvious race.

Brown, between phone calls and in-person conversations with his staff trying to manage training during the wet Sunday morning, rued the weekend race he thought got away, the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps on Saturday. There, Search Results dueled champion Letruska into a last-place finish, but went so fast early she was no match for the late-running one-two finishers, Clairiere and Malathaat. Belmont is Search Results’ favorite track; Brown thought the Phipps would be hers.

“That was the opposite of my plan,” Brown said. “I really wanted to turn it into a two-horse race and take my chances with Letruska turning for home, to take the horses farther behind out of the race.”

Brown’s other plans? They turned out all right.