ELMONT, N.Y. – Utilizing a perfect combination of speed and stamina, Next took the field gate to wire in Saturday's Grade 2, $250,000 Brooklyn Stakes for 4-year-olds and up going 1 1/2 miles at Belmont. Trained by William "Doug" Cowans, Next bounced right to the lead under jockey Luan Machado and set moderate fractions of 24.37 seconds and 50.02 while prompted by favored Warrant with Red Run and Calibrate tracking from the second flight. Positions remained largely unchanged after six furlongs in 1:16.12 and a mile in 1.41.62. Warrant then turned up the heat, but Next remained cool, and the gray gelding responded when Machado asked for a bit more turning for home. Next sprinted away from Warrant and streaked under the wire 2 1/4 lengths better than Calibrate. It was another 3 1/4 lengths back to Red Run in third. Completing the order of finish were Warrant, Portos, Forewarned, Centavo, Bright Future, Alfio, and Code Runner. Next completed the 12 furlongs in 2:31.01 and earned a 103 Beyer. He returned $8.70 as the third choice in the wagering. :: Get ready for summer racing with a DRF Formulator Quarterly PP plan “Everything today went just as we planned,” Cowans said in the winner’s circle. “Go to the lead, slow it down as slow as we could, try to keep a length in front the whole way, and it worked out. The horse just wants to get into a rhythm and once he’s in the rhythm, I don’t even think he has to be on the lead. He likes it there though.” Bred in Kentucky by Silverton Hill, Next is a 5-year-old gelding by Not This Time. He captured the War Chant Stakes a one mile on turf at Churchill for Silverton Hill and trainer Wesley Ward in 2021. Cowans claimed Next for $62,500 at Keeneland on April 16, 2022. “I had watched him all winter at Turfway. I just liked the horse, so I took a shot on him,” Cowans said. Next won a $50,000 claimer on turf at Churchill in his first start for Cowans. Two races later, he took the off-turf Cape Henlopen Stakes going 1 1/2 miles at Delaware by a whopping 18 1/4 lengths. The Cape Henlopen was Next’s first start at a distance longer than nine furlongs. “I was not always thinking distance,” Cowans admitted. “After I got the horse, in his breezes I noticed he had a lot of stamina after the breeze.” Cowans has won 884 races since hanging out his training shingle in 1993, but Next became his first graded stakes winner when the gelding confirmed his affinity for longer distances in the Grade 2 Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance on Nov. 4 at Keeneland. Next was a pacesetting winner that day and earned a 105 Beyer Speed Figure with his 6 1/4-length romp. Next raced once this year prior to the Brooklyn and finished third behind Warrant and Red Run in Churchill’s Isaac Murphy Marathon on May 3. Cowans mentioned Saratoga’s $150,000 Birdstone Stakes at 14 furlongs on July 27 as a likely next destination for Next. Wherever he resurfaces, expect Machado to be on his back. The jockey has won 3 of 4 starts aboard Next. The Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance was his first graded stakes victory as well. “He fits him like a glove,” Cowans said about Machado’s relationship with Next. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.