A decade after first Breeders' Cup win, Brown remains focused on winning the big ones

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In 2008, trainer Chad Brown came to the Breeders’ Cup with one horse. Maram, an 11-1 shot, nosed out Heart Shaped, a 10-1 shot, to win the inaugural $1 million Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita.

“It’s funny how things turn out,” Brown reminisced in a recent interview. “Who did we beat in a photo? It was Aidan O’Brien, who was much more established at that point than me. I guess it was a sign of what was to come in the years ahead where we race against each other, particularly in these turf races every year. Some I’ve won, some he’s won.”

Starting in 2008, no one has won more Breeders’ Cup races than Brown, who has won 10. During that span, O’Brien and Bob Baffert have each won nine.

In three of the last four years, Brown has won multiple Breeders’ Cup races, including in 2017 the Juvenile with Good Magic and the Juvenile Fillies Turf with Rushing Fall.

Brown will have 12 starters and be participating in six of the 14 races run in the 35th Breeders’ Cup, conducted Friday and Saturday at Churchill Downs. On Friday, he has the morning-line favorite in the Juvenile Fillies Turf (Newspaperofrecord) and the morning-line second choice in the Juvenile (Complexity). On Saturday, he’ll run five in the Filly and Mare Turf, including morning-line favorite Sistercharlie. Analyze It is the co-second choice at 6-1 in the Mile, a race in which he’ll also run Almanaar.

“The bar is high and we’ve put it there through the success we’ve had, but I don’t mind the pressure or the expectations, that’s why I’m in this profession,” he said. “I want the ball. It’s the World Series or the Super Bowl. That’s how I am, that’s how my staff is.”

Despite the talented group of runners he’s bringing to this year’s event, Brown said he would simply be happy to win one.

“I respect how tough these races are,” said Brown noting that he’s finished second in the last two runnings of the Turf, a race he covets, but has yet to win. “I never take for granted the successes we’ve had in these races. I appreciate every one of them sincerely.”

Brown will start the Breeders’ Cup with arguably his best win candidate, Newspaperofrecord in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, a race he has won four times. Newspaperofrecord has won both of her starts impressively.

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“She’s a rare horse with an incredible amount of talent and I hope she gets to the Breeders’ Cup happy and healthy and gets a fair post position to show everyone how good she is,” Brown said.

Brown took great pleasure in winning the Juvenile last year, his second Breeders’ Cup win on dirt. This year, he has two shots in the race with the undefeated Champagne winner Complexity and the live longshot Standard Deviation.

“We’ve worked hard at either purchasing or recruiting horses into our program that can compete at the highest level of dirt racing in America,” said Brown, who has won four Grade 1 dirt stakes this year. “I think we’ve done a really good job of that – not only getting those horses in our barn, but making the most of our opportunities.”

Wow Cat, winner of the Grade 1 Beldame, is entered in Saturday’s Distaff.

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Though Brown will have five of the 14 runners in the Filly and Mare Turf, including Grade 1 winners Sistercharlie, Fourstar Crook, and A Raving Beauty, he questions the logic of having the race run at 1 3/8 miles. The Grade 1 races in that division in the U.S. are typically conducted from a mile to 1 1/4 miles.

“I have a couple of really good chances in the race, but that said it doesn’t mean I agree with the distance,” Brown said. “I think it’s a poor decision and I think you’re going to see not many horses participating in that race that participated in the bulk of the most meaningful filly and mare turf races throughout our season in America. When you don’t have those horses in the race, it shows you have the distance wrong.”

Mom’s On Strike and Paved are the only other two U.S.-based stakes winners in the field.

Brown, winner of the last two Eclipse Awards for outstanding trainer, has bolstered his stable with the help of Peter Brant, a prominent owner in the late 1970s and 80s who has reinvested heavily in horseflesh. Sistercharlie and Robert Bruce – who runs for Brown in the Turf – are Brant’s two big Breeders’ Cup chances.

“I’m incredibly fortunate that Peter’s entrusted us with so many nice horses and he chose to work with me and my staff on rebuilding his stable to international prominence again,” Brown said. “In the process he’s become one of my closest friends. He’s just an outstanding person. He and his family, they’re very passionate about the industry. Peter is a lifelong horseman and horse lover. The amount of compassion and care he shows his horses on an individual basis is unparalleled.”