Jorge Abreu, assistant to Chad Brown, training his own stable
ELMONT, N.Y. – Jorge Abreu, who has worked for Chad Brown for nine years, is going out on his own.
Abreu was working for Brown this summer, but he also had his own horse, Woodville, who went 2 for 2 at the Spa. Abreu 42, said he is anticipating getting two 2-year-olds next week and is hoping to claim a horse or two.
Abreu said he had been contemplating going out on his own after the Gulfstream meet ended in the spring but agreed to stay with Brown through Saratoga. Brown won his first training title at Saratoga with 40 wins, a Saratoga meet record.
“I have a good job. We have a lot of horses, we have one of the best barns in the racing industry, but I want to give myself a shot,” Abreu said Thursday. “I’ve been around a lot of nice horses, a lot of nice trainers, and I’ve been on the racetrack all my life.”
Prior to joining Brown, Abreu worked for Nick Zito around graded stakes winners Bellamy Road, Commentator, and Sun King. Abreu also worked for trainer John Terranova, who in addition to having his own string looked after many of Bob Baffert’s stakes horses when they would ship in for stakes.
Currently, the only horse in Abreu’s care is Woodville, a 4-year-old New York-bred daughter of Ghostzapper who won her debut July 24 by 11 1/2 lengths. She came back to clear her statebred first-level allowance condition by 3 1/2 lengths on Monday’s closing-day card at the Spa.
Abreu said he wants to breeze Woodville back and then talk with the owners before finalizing a plan for her. Available races for her at Belmont would include the Grade 2, $300,000 Gallant Bloom Handicap on Oct. 1 and the $150,000 Iroquois on Oct. 22 for New York-bred fillies and mares.