Keeneland: Chad Brown marshaling forces in Kentucky
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The last few weeks in Florida were the calm before the Chad Brown storm.
Brown has made a habit of using the winter months to mostly prepare for richer races in Kentucky and New York while racing sparingly – a relative term, given the depth of his stable – at Gulfstream Park, where he went 16 for 61 with three stakes wins, and at Tampa Bay Downs, where he was a gaudy 18 for 39, also with three stakes wins.
His participation at both tracks was noticeably light as the time neared to break camp and move north, and as Keeneland opens its 15-day spring meet Friday, about 30 Brown horses were settling into Barn 12 with marching orders being finalized.
“That’s the way we prefer to operate, to use that time to focus on some of these bigger races,” Brown said early this week from Belmont Park. “I feel like it was a good winter.”
Brown has entries in four of the 10 opening-day races, including Money Supply in the Lafayette and the uncoupled pair of Napoleonic War and Verbal in the Grade 3 Transylvania. His stakes docket for opening week will continue Saturday with Zandon in the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes, along with Dolce Zel in the Grade 2 Appalachian, followed by Gina Romantica in the Grade 3 Beaumont on Sunday.
Next Friday, Brown will run Public Sector and a Juddmonte import named Masen in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile, followed by Shantisara and Regal Glory in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley on Saturday.
In the meantime, he has the names of regally bred maidens and allowance horses penciled into the Keeneland condition book, primed to take advantage of the record purses once again being offered at this meet. His runners invariably draw more than their share of tote action based partly on his success here. At Keeneland spring meets dating to 2008, he is 60 for 212 (28 percent), including a 9-for-24 run in 2015 and an uncanny 12-for-23 blitz in 2018, when he was in contention for leading trainer into the final days.
Brown already has won 36 Keeneland stakes (both spring and fall), fourth-most in track history, but at age 43, it almost seems like his mining of Kentucky riches is just getting started. Indeed, he is intent on establishing a foothold on this circuit after abandoning his first attempt last summer. He set up shop at Churchill Downs during the COVID-delayed spring meet of 2020, eventually campaigning at Ellis Park and Kentucky Downs ahead of the fall meets at Keeneland and Churchill.
But last year, with Churchill shuttering its barn area for a lengthy period to renovate the turf course, Brown decided in late July to regroup everything back to his East Coast base. Now, with Churchill all set to host turf racing again this year, Brown will maintain a Churchill stable beyond the May 7 Kentucky Derby.
“Churchill closing down its turf course changed our Kentucky plans last year,” said Brown, “but we’ll be setting up our Churchill barn in a couple weeks. We do plan to stay on through the fall this time.”
One of the Brown stars who could surface early at the Churchill spring meet is Jack Christopher, the 3-year-old Munnings colt who is not a Derby candidate after having gone unraced since winning the Grade 1 Champagne in October. With six Payson Park works since late February, Jack Christopher might use the Grade 2 Pat Day Mile on Derby Day as a comeback spot, said Brown.
“It will definitely be considered,” he said.