Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Brown loaded for major stakes coast to coast
Trainer Chad Brown already has set a personal record with 52 graded stakes wins as he marches toward another possible Eclipse Award as champion trainer of 2019. But hey, look, it’s still only mid-November, and Brown has plenty of time to add to that gaudy total.
“We’re not done yet,” Brown said Sunday, asked to name some upcoming graded-stakes starters.
There are many, and they will scatter literally from coast to coast.
Brown said he planned to run all three horses he nominated to the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby – Digital Age, Standard Deviation, and Valid Point. Digital Age seemed to peak during the spring and early summer, but Standard Deviation still is coming forward and Valid Point was 3 for 3, including the Grade 1 Secretariat, when he finished 10th in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile last out. The 10th-place finish deceives, as Valid Point was beaten only three lengths and had compromising traffic trouble in the homestretch.
Also headed to Del Mar seeking an elusive Grade 1 win is Significant Form, who uncovered her best form late this summer and could be a threat to likely Matriarch favorite Got Stormy. With a win in the race, Got Stormy would further thrust herself into contention for an Eclipse as champion older turf female, a category in which the Brown-trained Sistercharlie and Uni figure prominently.
Uni, who beat runner-up Got Stormy in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, is getting a 60-day break at Dell Ridge Farm in Kentucky in advance of a 6-year-old campaign.
Brown plans to run Princesa Caroline at Del Mar in the Jimmy Durante Stakes for 2-year-old fillies. Princesa Caroline, a half-sister to Lady Eli, won her only start by more than three lengths and was excluded from the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies after being pre-entered in the race.
Another horse slotted for Del Mar is Sacred Life, runner up this summer in the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch and more recently an eye-catching Keeneland turf allowance winner. She will start in the $200,000 Seabiscuit on the same Nov. 30 card as the Jimmy Durante.
For the $300,000 Mrs. Revere Stakes, a 3-year-old filly turf race Nov. 29 at Churchill Downs, Brown plans to run New and Improved, who won the Grade 2 Sands Point in her most recent start. He also is considering Nay Lady Nay.
Closer to home, Brown has horses aimed at important Aqueduct races, including the pair of Looking at Bikinis and Network Effect for the $750,000 Cigar Mile on Dec. 7. Looking At Bikinis finished a distant 11th in the Grade 1 Travers but quickly rebounded with a sharp Keeneland allowance win when cut back to seven furlongs. Network Effect won a Nov. 10 Aqueduct allowance race in his first start since finishing second about a year ago in the Remsen Stakes.
And finally, Brown has a horse he’s considering for this year’s Remsen, Country Grammar, a Tonalist colt who slogged his way to a 3 1/2-length Aqueduct maiden win going the Remsen’s 1 1/8 miles on Nov. 11.
“That race woke him up a little bit,” said Brown, whose stable knows no such thing as winter hibernation.
Short field for turf feature
Good news for New York trainers not named Brown – there’s no Chad Brown-trained entrant in Thursday’s featured eighth race at Aqueduct. The race, basically a third-level turf allowance restricted to females and open to $100,000 claimers, sits right in Brown’s wheelhouse, but he trains none of the seven entrants.
The forecast looks favorable for the 1 1/16-mile race to remain on turf, which would mean New Year’s Wish and No Hayne No Gayne, both entered only for the main track, won’t start. That leaves just five fillies and mares entered to race on turf.
Touriga, Chipolata, and Dream Passage appear to be the principal players. Touriga cuts back in trip after failing to see out the 1 1/2-mile Dowager Stakes at Keeneland. She might not have cared for yielding turf in her previous race and her third-place finish in the Matchmaker Stakes at Monmouth, her first start since being imported from Brazil and turned over to trainer Graham Motion, fits this spot.
French import Chipolata performed at a similar level to Touriga’s Matchmaker when she was third in the Beaugay Stakes on May 11 at Belmont, but Chipolata finished second as the favorite in a June allowance race and turned in a flat performance when back in action for the first time since that start on Sept. 29 at Belmont.
Dream Passage has no international credentials or graded stakes experience but brings the best recent form to the Thursday feature. She’s won two straight for trainer Brad Cox and possesses very useful tactical speed.