Network Effect off Triple Crown trail due to 'minor setback'

Network Effect, the runner-up in two graded stakes as a juvenile and a member of Daily Racing Form’s first installment of Derby Watch, has been taken off the Triple Crown trail due to “a minor setback,” trainer Chad Brown said Sunday.

“I’m going to back off the horse a little bit,” Brown said by phone from South Florida. “It’s a minor setback. Hopefully, I’ll have him in good shape for the summer.

“It’s disappointing. We were looking to make the Derby with him. It wasn’t meant to be.”

Brown said the horse will remain in his barn at Palm Meadows.

Network Effect, a son of Mark Valeski owned by Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables, won his debut going seven furlongs at Saratoga on Aug. 11. He didn’t run again until Nov. 4, when he finished second to Vekoma in the Grade 2 Nashua. On Dec. 1, he finished second to Maximus Mischief in the Grade 2 Remsen.

Network Effect worked three times from Dec. 30 through Jan. 13, then was off the tab for three weeks. He breezed on Feb. 4 and Feb. 10 before Brown decided to back off.

“The horse is going to be fine; the timing of it is not ideal,” Brown said.