Brown, Irad Ortiz, Klarman win titles at fall meeting

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. dominated their divisions and Seth Klarman topped all owners by wins at the Belmont Park fall meet, which ended abruptly Saturday after the closing-day Sunday program was canceled due to inclement weather.

A 38-year-old native of upstate New York, Brown has led the trainer standings at the last six Belmont fall meets. He and Rudy Rodriguez tied at last year’s meet with 30 wins apiece, and Brown and David Jacobson shared the 2012 title with 21 wins.

Brown also has won the Belmont spring meet the last two years, and was the leading trainer at Saratoga in 2016. He is the reigning 2016 Eclipse Award-winning trainer and leads all trainers this year with purse earnings of $21.55 million.

Brown sent out what is believed to be a record 41 winners at the 35-day fall meet, breaking his own modern-day record of 35 that he set in 2015. He won 12 stakes at the meet – nine on turf and three on the main track – and had stable earnings of more than $4.2 million, more than 2 1/2 times that of his closest rival.

His record-setting meet is more remarkable in that it follows the Saratoga meeting, during which he and Todd Pletcher had a meet-long battle for leading trainer before Pletcher scored a one-win victory.

“I’m very proud that our stable is deep enough to run as well as we have following a tough Saratoga meet, where we ran a lot of horses,” Brown said. “It’s a credit to my staff and clients.”

Brown had 135 starters at the fall meet, far more than anyone else, and won at a 30 percent clip.

“It’s not that I have the most horses, but that I run the most horses,” he said. “I am very committed to NYRA and am all-in when it comes to the major meets at NYRA.”

Pletcher finished second in the standings with 19 wins, five more than Bill Mott, who was third.

Ortiz, 25, won his fourth straight fall meet riding title with 51 wins, 12 more than Javier Castellano. Ortiz and Castellano tied atop the standings at last year’s fall meet with 48 wins each.

A native of Puerto Rico, Ortiz won six stakes at the meet, including the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup on Diversify and the Grade 1 Champagne on Firenze Fire. He booted home five winners on the Oct. 19 card.

Ortiz is the winningest rider in North America this year, with 264 victories.

Klarman, who races as Klaravich Stable, won 14 races at the fall meet, including the Grade 1 Frizette with Separation of powers, who is scheduled to start in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Saturday. Separation of powers is trained by Brown.