Harness: The far-reaching branches of the Brown family tree

There have been many family dynasties in Ohio harness racing. The Millers, the Irvines, the Nobles. That names just a few. But nobody in the Buckeye State has a family tree with roots as deep and branches as long as the family of trainer Brian Brown (full disclosure: Brown trains one colt for me).

Brown, a native of Upper Sandusky, Ohio (which is actually below Sandusky, Ohio), is well-known in the sport. Among the top horses he has conditioned are Downbytheseaside, Fear The Dragon, Workin Ona Mystery, Lost For Words and Breeders Crown champ Colors A Virgin, who really thrust him into the spotlight. He conditioned Won The West and Jug Champ Limelight Beach before sending them to the Burke Brigade, and he broke and trained the great Confederate before he was sent out east to race. In nearly 10,000 training starts, Brown has over 2,000 wins and nearly 5,000 on the board finishes, with earnings of $38,000,000.

So let’s have a look at that family tree. The Brown family’s first ties to the business are through his grandparents on both sides. Brian started in the business with his dad Robert H Brown and uncle William “Bill” Brown.

“My dad and uncle taught me all the basics and I started from the bottom. I cleaned stalls for a long time before I ever got to jog a horse, and even longer before I trained,” said Brian.

Robert H Brown’s sister Shirley was the mother of Carol Winters, who is married to trainer Mark Winters. Carol is Devan Miller’s mother. The pedigree gets more interesting when, after training mostly colts with his dad and uncle, Brian went to work for Ivan Sugg. He calls Sugg his “greatest teacher” and was pretty much a part of the Sugg family, which included Ivan and Patty’s sons, Kurt and Duke, both highly successful trainer/drivers (we could probably do a family tree on them as well).

Brian’s brothers Pat and John both trained and drove a bit.

But there are two halves to every pedigree, the sire and the dam. The Grand Dam of the family is Brown’s wife Jenny (nee Wiliams). Jenny runs the back office of the operation, doing all the billing and staking, so she is a major component of the stable’s success, even without genetic attachment. And her side of the family is where the family tree’s branches really start to spread (full disclosure: I have owned horses in partnership with Jenny in the past).

One of Jenny’s sisters is Stacy Beckley. Her husband Bill campaigned horses on the tough Chicago circuit back when there was a tough Chicago circuit.

Her other sister is Amy Hollar, who has been profiled on these pages in the past. Not only is she the Ohio Harness Horseman’s Association rep to Northfield Park, but she is married to trainer Calvin “Buck” Hollar. Buck and Amy were married in the winner’s circle at Raceway Park in Toledo, Ohio. Buck has nearly 1,200 training wins to his credit. The Hollar’s daughter Toni Dale is married to trainer Todd Luther, so that ties the family to both Todd and Prolific Equine’s Greg Luther, at least tangentially.

But wait, there’s more! Aunt Melinda Bailey (Bill Irvine) and cousin Aliza Cox (wife of Scott Cox) are also involved in the business. And there is “niece-in-law” Taylor Russell.

But the key branches that will guarantee the future of the Brown family in the industry are Brian’s son Beau (and wife Teesha) and daughter Jessica McCown (husband driver Cam McCown).

(Another disclosure: Jess and Cam have trained several horses for me. Actually, with all these disclosures, even I might be an honorary Brown family member).

But seriously, as Brian said a couple years back, “In the future, “I’d like to see a smaller stable entirely focused on quality, with my son Beau and daughter Jessica in charge and me in the background as somewhat of a senior consultant.”

Jessica, 35, has over $4,000,000 in training purse earnings, garnering nearly 400 wins. When Brian wintered in Florida, Jess would train several for Brian’s owners back at home at the Delaware Fairgrounds, where Brian now trains year-round. She actually is just ahead of her dad in the Scioto Downs trainer standings this year. After having her best year last year, amassing 82 wins and having her first million-dollar season, she is well on her way to topping that total this year. In fact, she is currently fifth in the Scioto conditioner rankings.

Jessica’s husband Cam McCown, 38, a former rodeo rider, has over 1,200 career driving wins and career earnings of $11.5 million. He has been over $1,000,000 in earnings in all but one year since 2018. That was the Covid year of 2020, when his horses earned “just” $933,000. Currently he ranks eighth in the strong Scioto Downs drivers’ colony.

Beau Brown, 33, has trained mostly for his dad’s stable but also trains a small stable of his own and is looking to expand. In recent months he has picked up a number of catch drives, including for his sister, for leading Ohio fair trainer Hank LeVan, and for his dad. He has 141 driving wins and nearly a million in purses thus far, while his trainees have been to the winner’s circle 64 times, banking just under $600,000.

There are several grandkids too, and while they are too young to help in the barn yet, it’s a good bet that we will see them working the backstretch as they get older. And, if Brian does decide to slow down further (at his peak he was training over 60 horses; now he had about 30 or so), the Brown stable will be in good hands and the future will be bright.

That’s it for now. Go cash, hopefully on a Brown or McCown trainee.