Saratoga: Brown sets meet record for wins while clinching training title
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Chad Brown not only won his first Saratoga trainer’s title, he did it in record-setting fashion.
When Mexican Gold outfinished Off Limits in Sunday’s 10th race, it not only gave Brown a one-two finish in the race but it gave him his 39th victory at the meet, a Saratoga record, with one day remaining. Todd Pletcher held the previous mark of 38, set in 2011. The Saratoga meet expanded from 36 to 40 days in 2010.
That year, Brown finished second in the Saratoga standings, the first of five consecutive years that would happen.
On Aug. 5, day 13 of this meet, Brown won three races on the card and the following day he won four more to open up a lead he would never surrender. Pletcher ended Sunday’s card with 29 wins, a clear second.
Brown, who is from nearby Mechanicville and came to Saratoga with his family every summer, called winning his first Saratoga title, “the highlight of my career, highlight of my life.”
Brown, who trains a string of 200 horses, credited his staff.
“I’m just like the lead singer of a band, the people behind me make the music,” Brown said. “I’m here doing the interview but I have150 employees and every single one of them I find to be highly skilled, highly dependable; they work well together and we do it as a team.”
Brown won 11 stakes at the meet, including the Grade 1 Diana and Grade 1 Sword Dancer. Earlier this summer, he recorded his 1,000th career victory, which he tabbed as his meet highlight.
“This is where it all came about for me right in the picnic area at Saratoga, that’s where horse racing first captured me,” Brown said. “It changed my whole life, it changed my whole outlook on what I wanted to do with my life and from that point forward it’s been a way of life not just a job. For me, to reach this level of success with my team right here at my home track at the very place that changed my career ambitions, it’s a dream come true.”