Uni may be supplemented to BC Mile

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown still hasn’t decided in which Breeders’ Cup race he plans to run Bricks and Mortar. If he elects for the Mile, one of the main competitors could come from Brown’s own barn.

Uni, who set a course record winning Saturday’s Grade 1 First Lady at Keeneland – she ran a mile in 1:32.87 – is likely to be supplemented to the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile, co-owner Michael Dubb said Sunday at Belmont Park. The supplemental fee would be $100,000 according to a Breeders’ Cup spokesperson.

“Depending how she comes out of the race, we’ll pay the supplement,” Dubb said Sunday at Belmont. Dubb owns Uni with Sol Kumin’s Head of Plain Partners, Robert LaPenta, and Michael Caruso’s Bethlehem Stables.

:: BREEDERS’ CUP 2019: See DRF’s top contenders

Brown will be the one to monitor how well Uni comes out of the First Lady. Brown certainly believes Uni belongs in that race.

“It sure looks that way,” he said. “Her closing kick is just devastating if she can get room. Certainly looks like she fits.”

The First Lady was a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. According to a Breeders’ Cup spokesperson, the connections of Uni can use that victory to pay the entry fees to the Mile.

Uni is 6 for 7 at a mile in Brown’s care. That includes a victory in the Grade 1 Matriarch at Del Mar last December. Her only loss at the distance came when she was third to Got Stormy, another filly, in the Grade 1 Fourstardave at Saratoga.

Meanwhile, Bricks and Mortar on Sunday worked five furlongs in 1:01.76 over the Belmont turf course. He worked in company with Olympico, starting about a half-length back of that one and finishing a head in front at the wire under Irad Ortiz Jr.

Brown is wavering between the Mile and the Breeders’ Cup Turf at 1 1/2 miles. While Bricks and Mortar is 3 for 3 at a mile – albeit against lower level competition – he has never run 1 1/2 miles. Among his five wins this year are the Manhattan and Arlington Million, both Grade 1 stakes at 1 1/4 miles. He has not run since Arlington on Aug. 10.

“It’s just a matter of 13 weeks off and going farther than he’s ever gone,” Brown said when thinking out loud about the Turf. “I will say this, he breezed as good today as he has all year.”