Pletcher’s day quickly turns Brown
BALTIMORE — Saturday at Pimlico Race Course was expected to be trainer Todd Pletcher’s day. Always Dreaming, whom he saddled for an easy victory in the Kentucky Derby two weeks earlier, had the look of a horse that would offer an encore performance in the 142nd Preakness Stakes and stamp himself as a mighty candidate to sweep the Triple Crown three weeks later in the Belmont Stakes.
Pletcher, a four-time Eclipse Award winner and dominant force in the thoroughbred world for the past decade and a half, would finally add a Triple Crown championship to his 4,300 victories and $339 million in earnings.
To the shock of the record crowd of 140,327 — and, surely, Pletcher — the 6-5 favorite faded to eighth in a field of 10 3-year-olds after dueling with second choice Classic Empire from the start before hitting the wall into the far turn.
It turned out to be trainer Chad Brown’s day, when Cloud Computing was the beneficiary of a cagey ride by Javier Castellano, who rated the lightly raced 12-1 longshot just behind the dueling favorites before launching a stretch drive to claim victory over Classic Empire by a head.
Brown couldn’t get himself out of Pletcher’s shadow for several years (until winning the Eclipse in 2016). The 38-year-old native of upstate New York was dismissed as an outstanding trainer of turf horses for many years while Pletcher was piling up victories in major stakes on American soil.
Brown’s surge on dirt began before yesterday, but the Preakness profoundly expanded and enhanced his burgeoning resume.
In the aftermath of Cloud Computing’s victory, Brown diverted his attention from Pletcher to the late Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel, for whom he worked as a longtime assistant until going out on his own in 2007.
“I was thinking about this in the winner’s circle. I’ve always praised my mentor Bobby Frankel, who taught me so much. And it just seems like he’s won every race but the Derby and Preakness, really. This is the only race that eluded him in his unbelievable career,” Brown said. “I feel this is for him, at least from my viewpoint. And without his mentorship, I certainly wouldn’t be here.”
Brown’s first career success in a Triple Crown event was a tribute to his astute horsemanship; he prepared a colt that had previously won only once, from three career races. After breaking his maiden on Feb. 11, the son of Maclean’s Music finished second in the Gotham Stakes and third in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. Although the colt had enough qualifying points to run in the Derby, Brown and owners Seth Klarman and William Lawrence opted to bypass the craziness of the 20-horse first leg of the Triple Crown for to the less-stressful Preakness.
Since 1980, only six horses have won the Preakness after skipping the Derby. During the last 10 years, nine Derby starters won the Preakness — all but 2009 winner Rachel Alexandra, who also had only two weeks of rest after winning the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on Derby eve. Cloud Computing certainly benefited from the six-week break since the Wood Memorial.
The two-week span between the Kentucky Derby and Preakness apparently was too short of a window for Always Dreaming — previously undefeated this year, winning his four races by 231⁄ lengths — to recover 4 from the demands of the 11⁄ 4- mile classic at Churchill Downs, especially with Classic Empire taking it to him right from the start on a track rated fast after starting the day muddy.
“He didn’t seem to relish the track, but I don’t really think that was it,” Pletcher said. “It was just that he put so much into the Derby that it wasn’t meant to be.”
Neither Pletcher nor Brown have been particularly active in the Preakness. Pletcher has saddled only eight starters since 2000, his only on-the-board finish coming with Impeachment that year. Cloud Computing was Brown’s first.
The battle between Pletcher and Brown is destined to rage for many years to come, but that one start was all Brown needed to put a victory on his resume that his archrival’s still lacks.