Harness: Brown hopes to make a splash with Downbytheseaside's first crop

There's a sense in this sport that in order for a regional Sire Stakes program to make a national impact there needs to be a top stallion that can produce Grand Circuit stakes winners. As the balance of stallion power has shifted away from New York and New Jersey over the last decade, more states and provinces have vied for a seat at the table.

The arrival of superstars Wiggle It Jiggleit and Always B Miki sparked the foundation of the Indiana Sires program and legitimized the Hoosier state as a true breeding ground for the sport. Now Ohio's breeding operations could be on the verge of a breakout star as the first crop of Downbytheseaside gets a step closer to the races, and in so perhaps provides the vehicle necessary to make the important next step.

Trainer Brian Brown was responsible for Downbytheseaside's rise to stardom as a racehorse and the conditioner may be part of the foundation that helps advance his sons and daughters to prominence outside of Ohio borders.

"I've got about six or seven that I'm going to stake to the Breeders Crown, Lexington, The Matron and Governor's Cup," said Brown from his training headquarters this winter at Spring Garden Ranch.

Brown started with some 21 from the first crop of Downbytheseaside and a majority of them are on track to make the races. Given the rich Ohio Sire Stakes program and its scheduling demands, a real question to many believers is how to race on the Grand Circuit and yet still hope to take advantage of the local money.

"I'm not going to leave Ohio until after the Sire Stakes are over," said Brown, suggesting that even his best Ohio-bred 2-year-olds will not be lured out of state for any races that conflict with the Sire Stakes program.

For Brown, 2021 represents a turning point in his career. Having trained Downbytheseaside, he now gets a first opportunity to train offspring created by one of his most accomplished students.

"He was a big, strong coarse son of Somebeachsomewhere," said Brown. "He was a little bit aggressive training down."

Now some years later Brown gets to inspect and check out the similarities and differences among the group he's training. "They are all types. Some of the fillies are a little finer than he was, but I've got some bigger ones as well that I like."

Brown would certainly like to see Downbytheseaside succeed in a major way, while at the same time he's looking for his own stable to bounce back strong after a pair of average campaigns. "What I can say is that overall, as a group, the 51 2-year-olds I'm training this year are much better than the ones I trained over the last two years," Brown said.

Brown has gone to the sales and back, and last year Downbytheseaside's yearling crop was well-received. While it may have been part of the fact that he was an accomplished horse by Somebeachsomewhere, as well as the increased purse structure in the Ohio Sire Stakes program, you have to believe that six-figure prices reflect an attitude that these horses will compete throughout North America.

"I think it's a matter of getting breeders to go out and get better mares," said Brown. "If you look at the kind of mares Huntsville got in his first crop, you can see the difference."

Indeed, both Huntsville and Downbytheseaside offer the same male bloodlines to breeders but Huntsville's initial crop drew a better collection of mares. Nevertheless, it is generally up to the stallion to pick up on the broodmare crop he's given in order to convince a wider audience of his true potential.

For Brown, most of his 2-year-olds have only been in 2:25 to date and thus it's way too early to know exactly what they will turn into when they need to go 30 seconds faster just to qualify. Though a large majority of the stable is made up of 2-year-olds, Brown will be returning a 5-year-old in the name of Workin Ona Mystery that he hopes may finally reach the potential many saw of him in 2018 as a 2-year-old.

"With him it's always been about his health," said Brown. In three years of racing, Workin Ona Mystery has only started 27 times and his trainer suggested that most of the reason for that were nagging sickness issues that made it near impossible to keep him racing at the top level.

"I just hope that all of the problems are behind him now," said Brown, who doesn't expect to have Workin Ona Mystery ready to race in stakes action until the summer.

On the 3-year-old front, Bayfield Beach has come back bigger and stronger for his sophomore year. The son of Somebeachsomewhere only won once in 13 tries as a 2-year-old but showed a wicked turn of speed, cutting the pace in last year's Matron at Dover Downs and finishing a respectable third behind Southwind Gendry in a 1:50 mile. With $260K banked during his freshman campaign, the full brother to the $663k-winning Melmerby Beach is the richest 2-year-old from the eight foals of his dam.

Brown thinks he could have a sleeper in another Somebeachsomewhere-sired sophomore named The Legend Hanover. "He was a bit of a challenge last year," said Brown. "I had a lot of equipment to try to control him."

A winner in Pennsylvania Sire Stakes action at the outset of his career, The Legend Hanover didn't end the campaign as well and Brown decided to have him gelded.

"He's come back a much different horse," said Brown, who expects his two prime sophomore candidates to be ready to qualify in early April in preparation for the lucrative Pennsylvania Sire Stakes races that start on May 1.

While Brown may be training the largest group of Downbytheseaside's 2-year-olds in 2021, he said that he has talked to many other trainers who have offered positive reviews thus far of the breadth of talent out there.

"It's really not that easy to predict what will actually happen when they all get out there to race," Brown said. "I had Santa Fe Beachboy and I remember (2012) thinking that I've got this really nice Somebeachsomewhere colt. Then when I took him to the races, I found out that a lot of others had good Somebeachsomewheres."

If the same happens when Brown ushers out his Downbytheseasides this summer, Ohio's breeding program may be the biggest winner.