Kentucky Derby: Brown would love a win but won't alter training methods

Through a career that has been built largely on the success of his turf division, Chad Brown has not had the Kentucky Derby as a top priority. However, now into his 17th year of training horses, Brown admits the Derby is a race that has become more top of mind.

“The list of races we haven’t won keeps shrinking and the Derby really stands out like a sore thumb, so in that way it’s become a much higher priority of importance to check that box, if you will,” Brown, a four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer, said in a recent interview. “What it hasn’t done is change my approach to how I manage my horses or build my team of horses every year.”

Brown, 45, has participated in six Derbies with seven horses. In 2018, Good Magic finished second to Justify. In 2022, Zandon was third to upset winner Rich Strike. Brown is a two-time Preakness winner – Cloud Computing (2017) and Early Voting (2022) – and from three starters in the Belmont Stakes, Brown has a second with Gronkowski.

Brown’s annual roster of young horses is as large, if not larger, than the biggest outfits in the country. Unlike Bob Baffert, Brad Cox, and Todd Pletcher, however, Brown gets a higher percentage of turf horses and his dirt horses that want to run long likely comprise the smallest part of his operation. Of Brown’s 447 career graded stakes wins, 348 have come on turf.

That said, with seven weeks until Kentucky Derby 150 on May 4, Brown has at least two top prospects for the race. Sierra Leone, winner of the Grade 2 Risen Star on Feb. 17 is the top-ranked contender on Daily Racing Form’s Derby Watch while Domestic Product, narrow winner of last Saturday’s Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby, is a horse seemingly headed in the right direction.

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Brown has at least two other horses – Tuscan Gold and Top Conor – who will be given the chance to earn their way to the Derby in coming weeks.

“I have a group of colts here that have all given us hope that they can get on the trail, if it’s the Derby or just a Triple Crown race,” Brown said. “They look like quality horses that are stepping up; that’s what you got to hope for.”

Sierra Leone, narrowly beaten in last year’s Grade 2 Remsen, made an auspicious 3-year-old debut winning the Risen Star and is on track for the Grade 1, $1 million Blue Grass Stakes – a race Brown has won twice – at Keeneland on April 6. A win there could stamp him as the Kentucky Derby favorite.

Domestic Product has caught slow paces in his first two starts of the year, but overcame it to win the Tampa Bay Derby. He will likely be more effective with a stronger pace in front of him and is a candidate for either the Blue Grass or Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial, also April 6, at Aqueduct.

Tuscan Gold finished a trouble-trip fourth to Sierra Leone on debut but came back to win his maiden by 6 1/4 lengths on Jan. 31 at Fair Grounds and will return there for the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby on March 23.

“I know he’s only run twice but he’s screaming for a mile and three-sixteenths right now,” Brown said. “My thinking is a mile and three-sixteenths in March of your 3-year-old year, you got to be a certain kind and he’s that kind. We’ll see if he’s good enough – that I don’t know yet – but he’s definitely looking for that distance right now.”

Top Conor, a $1 million 2-year-old-in-training purchase and an impressive debut winner at Gulfstream on Feb. 17, is an outside Derby prospect. He likely would only have one chance to earn the points necessary to qualify for the Derby and is a candidate for either the Florida Derby or Wood Memorial.

“He certainly fits the profile of one of our Preakness horses, but if he’s able to win one of these preps and has the points . . . we’ll cross that bridge if it happens,” Brown said.

Todd Pletcher won his first Kentucky Derby in his 10th attempt. D. Wayne Lukas his eighth, Woody Stephens his fifth. Bobby Frankel, Brown’s mentor, never won the Derby, finishing second twice while starting a total of eight horses in six runnings.

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Brown would certainly love to add the Derby to his résumé, but he’s not about to alter an operation that has been extremely successful for 17 years.

“It’s something I really want to accomplish but I have to be careful not to really shift focus of my company on just chasing that,” Brown said. “I don’t want to refuse or redirect or change too much because it’s a viable business.”

◗ There are no races this week offering qualifying points to the Derby. Action picks up on March 23 with the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds and the Grade 3, $700,000 Jeff Ruby at Turfway Park, the first two of eight races offering 200 points (100-50-25-15-10) toward the Derby.

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