Pocono: Brown has strength in numbers for Breeders crown

The saying goes you can’t win it if you’re not in it and trainer Brian Brown is certainly in it. The Ohio-based conditioner made certain of that on Monday morning entering a full 20 percent of the field in this year’s $600,000 Breeders Crown juvenile event for male pacers. Brown has been a virtual institution in the class but has yet to earn the top prize in this essential year-end contest.

Leading the foursome is the undefeated Workin Ona Mystery, a colt from the first crop of Captaintreacherous that cost but $30,000 and now seems to be worth a whole lot more.

“Don’t read that much into the price,” Brown said, forewarning that there was no additional magic that led him to the colt last year at Harrisburg.

“It’s pretty simple, my owners come to the sale every year and they have a price they want to buy at,” Brown said. “The colts dam (Dragon’s Tale) is out of a 100 percent producer of solid racehorses. Sometimes when you put a young stallion with that kind of family it works out.”

Brown hardly needs to justify his purchases as he has consistently over the years produced seven-figure earners from modest beginnings. In reality, Workin Ona Mystery is lucky to be racing this year or any year according to Brown.

“He put his foot through a fence and it was in very bad shape,” Brown said of Workin Ona Mystery’s history as he approached time to baby race. “If it wasn’t for his caretaker Ashley Dallas he wouldn’t be racing.”

Obviously Brown liked Workin Ona Mystery enough to stake him to the Breeders Crown, but at the same time he had a few others that appeared better as the races approached.

Ashley’s boyfriend Todd Luther actually qualified Workin Ona Mystery at Scioto Downs in late August and was rather impressed. A week later when the colt made his pari-mutuel debut, despite winning, Brown was far from happy.

“I thought we might have ruined him,” said Brown. “He came from way back and was three wide a long way and went in 1:52 4/5. It worried me.”

The worries subsided when the colt continued his winning form with an eye-catching 1:50 3/5 victory over the Delaware County half-mile oval where he beat stablemate and Crown entrant Air Force Hanover after a pocket trip.

Though Tim Tetrick drove Workin Ona Mystery to victory during consecutive weeks at the Red Mile, he and Brown were not pleased with his 1:49 3/5 career best clocking on October 6.

“I know he won but the track was blazing fast that day and he struggled a little bit,” Brown said. The trainer has since gone away from the aluminum shoes to a light full swedge and declared the colt ready for Pocono’s elimination races this Friday. “I was very happy with the way he trained back,” said Brown.

Though happy with his horse, Brown was obviously concerned when notified that the unbeaten colt had landed post seven in the final of three Crown elimination races at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono on Friday. Making matters even more difficult was the fact that he’s likely in the toughest division, with Metro winner Stag Party and multiple stakes winner Captain Trevor in the field. Only the top three advance to the October 27 finale.

While Workin Ona Mystery may be the current number one in the Brown stable of juveniles, he’s not that far in front of Air Force Hanover, a near $120K winner in his first year at the races. The consistent son of Somebeachsomewhere put in two impressive races at the Red Mile’s Grand Circuit meet, though the last one had an unexpected wrinkle. “I don’t know what exactly happened there,” Brown said of the colt’s early break in stride. “He’d never made a break before. David (Miller) thought he might have seen something on the track and tried to jump over it.”

Despite the miscue, Air Force Hanover rebounded with a solid move on the backstretch and actually held the lead late before getting rolled over by a horse with a perfect cover trip. “I thought he went a big trip the second week at the Red Mile,” Brown said.

The luck of the draw put two of Brown’s colts in the same field. Proof, the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes champion, didn’t find the winner’s circle in Kentucky but Brown believes he’s among his stables best colts. With $285K banked for owner-breeder Diamond Creek Farms, Proof returns to the track where he captured his first two career starts in stakes action in July.

This year’s first-crop stallions have battled all year long for supremacy and both Sweet Lou and Captaintreacherous are well represented in the Crown. More specifically, they were well served in the Brown stable where the Sweet Lou-sired Smooth Lou could be the sleeper that comes to life under the bright lights. “I was really impressed with his last race at the Red Mile,” said Brown of Smooth Lou. To recap, making just his fifth lifetime start and racing for the first time against Grand Circuit stock, the colt quickly overcame post eight with a slick move off the starting gate. He then made another sharp move attacking on the backstretch and held firmly through the stretch, finishing third while timed in 1:50.

As history has told us, the Crown arrives at a time that sometimes helps those horses that haven’t had to go through the rigorous battles in Sire Stakes competition and arrive fresh. Smooth Lou enters the Crown with three wins in five starts for owner Bruce Trogdon’s Emerald Highlands Farm. Trogdon purchased Smooth Lou’s dam Smooth Silver while she was carrying this Sweet Lou colt.

Trogdon has combined with Brian Brown for his two Breeders Crown victories. One came last year with Blazin Britches in the sophomore filly pace at Hoosier Park and the other in the Mares Open with Always A Virgin at Woodbine in 2015.

In addition to Smooth Lou, the trainer-owner team will send out Cinnamack in an elimination Saturday for sophomore male pacers.