Chad Brown | Horse Racing Free Tips

Arklow Tries to Fend Off Brown Trio in U.N.

Easily the most accomplished runner in the field with earnings of over $2.75 million–more than his nine opponents combined–7-year-old stalwart Arklow (Arch) will try to make amends for running fourth as a heavy favorite in last year's GI United Nations S. in Saturday's renewal of the 1 3/8-mile test on the Monmouth turf.

Picking up his first stakes win as a 3-year-old in the GII American Turf S. back in 2017, the bay has since added five more black-type scores, including his lone Grade I success thus far in the 2019 GI Joe Hirsch Turf Classic S. at Belmont. Adding blinkers after disappointing in last year's U.N., he has gone three-for-four since, capturing the GIII Calumet Farm Kentucky Turf Cup S., GII Hollywood Turf Cup S. and GIII Louisville S. last out May 15 at Churchill.

A trio of Chad Brown trainees figure to offer the heftiest challenges to the favorite, with the most dangerous of the three appearing to be the speedy Tribhuvan (Fr) (Toronado {Ire}). Spurting out to a clear lead in the GII Fort Marcy S. May 1 at Belmont, he dug in gamely in the stretch to score a 1 1/2-length victory at 10-1. Again blitzing clear in the 1 1/4-mile GI Resorts World Casino Manhattan S. there June 5, he held well to be second behind stablemate and turf division leader Domestic Spending (GB) (Kingman {GB}).

Master Piece (Chi) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}), a Group 2 winner in his native Chile, was fourth last fall when making his U.S. debut in the Joe Hirsch and got the winter off before returning with a well-graded allowance score Apr. 16 at Keeneland. He failed to make an impact, however, when sixth in the Manhattan last out.

Rounding out the Brown contingent is Peter Brant's Serve the King (GB) (Kingman {GB}), runner-up in last fall's GIII Monmouth S. and fourth in the same event off the bench June 5.

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Brown Looks to Keep Streak Alive in Diana

One of these years, the New York Racing Association (NYRA) may have to switch the name of the GI Diana S. to the Chad Brown.

With five straight victories, six wins overall and 17 in-the-money finishes since he saddled his first runner in the race in 2009, Brown has, well, dominated the 1 1/8 mile race for fillies and mares on the inner turf course. Brown will try to extend his unprecedented Saratoga graded-stakes streak Saturday with a pair of runners, Juddmonte's Pocket Square (GB) (Night of Thunder {Ire}) and Peter Brant's Lemista (Ire) (Raven's Pass) in the first of 20 Grade I races to be contested at Saratoga this summer. They are part of the proven group of stakes horses that includes the Godolphin pair, Athiqua (GB) (Dark Angel {Ire}) and Summer Romance (Ire) (Kingman {GB}), who finished one-two in the GI Just A Game S. at Belmont Park June 5.

While a number of trainers have won some of Saratoga's graded stakes multiple times, Brown's streak in a Grade I stands alone. The closest is Hall of Famer Jonathan Sheppard, who won the GI New York Turf Writers Cup H. steeplechase four years in a row, from 1989-1992. The race has been renamed in Sheppard's honor this year. Leo O'Brien, the father-in-law of Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez, won the ungraded Yaddo S., for New York-bred fillies and mares, five consecutive times, from 1991-1995. Irish Linnet (Seattle Song) did the work for O'Brien in the streak with five straight wins.

After a five-year run as an assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel, Brown launched his own stable in November 2007. His first Grade I came at Saratoga Race Course, his home track in his youth, in the 2011 Diana with Zagora (Fr) (Green Tune). He said Frankel regarded the Diana–which he won twice–as one of American's high-end top turf races and he does, too.

“It's been a special race. Ever since then we've really pointed toward it,” Brown said. “And we had the right horses a lot of the years.”

Indeed. Brown has entered the race for 12 consecutive years and has had at least one horse in the top three of the Diana since Zagora's victory. His win streak started with Dacita (Scat Daddy) in 2016 and he followed up with Lady Eli (Divine Park) in 2017. Brant's Sistercharlie (Ire) (Myboycharlie {Ire}) took the 2018 and 2019 editions and Rushing Fall (More Than Ready) won last year.

“We've had tremendous success in the race with so many talented fillies through the years that we've had the opportunity to work with. All a little different,” Brown said. “It's a remarkable record, a lot of credit to my team and to the horses. It's a tough race. There's been no Dianas in that group that we've won that have been easy. We're bringing two nice prospects into the race. We'll have to see if we can keep it going.”

Lemista won a pair of group races in Ireland last year and was beaten a half-length in her lone start for Brown, the GIII Beaugay S. May 8. Pocket Square, who was also imported from Europe this season, finished fifth as the 5-2 favorite in the Just A Game.

Brown said the possibility of soft ground is a worry. There has been a lot of rain in upstate New York this month and more is in the forecast Saturday. The courses were rated “good” for Thursday's opening day program.

“It's concerning. It's definitely concerning,” Brown said. “I'd rather the turf be firmer for my horses. I think they can handle it. Lemista shows in her form that she could possibly handle it back home. We thought that Pocket Square could, but she didn't run well on soft turf in the Just A Game, so I'm concerned.”

Brown said a couple of factors might have contributed to her performance in the Just A Game.

“The soft turf, but she did run well back in Europe on the soft. So that was confusing,” Brown said. “She did miss her final work for the race because the rain came in. I was able to get some of the horses worked. On her schedule, it hit at exactly the wrong time to get her final breeze.

“So, she actually missed her last work. I didn't think it would affect her because she'd been training so strong in the weeks prior, but it might've. It probably did. So maybe it was more the work than the ground. I'm hoping, but we'll see.”

Brown said the Diana streak is a positive that he is enjoying.

“I don't really feel pressure so much, but more of I look forward to it,” he said. “I look forward to the challenge of keeping the streak going and maybe setting the bar very high for that race.”

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Brown Chasing Sixth Straight Diana Victory With Lemista, Pocket Square

Four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown will send out Lemista and Pocket Square in Saturday's 83rd renewal of the Grade 1, $500,000 Diana as he looks to secure his sixth consecutive win in the nine-furlong inner-turf test for older fillies and mares at Saratoga Race Course.

Brown captured the first of his record six Diana wins in 2011 with Zagora and has enjoyed success in the last five editions with Dacita [2016], Lady Eli [2017], Sistercharlie [2018-19] and Rushing Fall [2020].

A former assistant to the late Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel, himself a two-time Diana winner, Brown spoke about his affinity for the prestigious race on a recent episode of the Across the Board with Andy Serling podcast.

“We've had enormous success with it; I'm lucky. We've had the right horses,” said Brown. “It's a real honor to have that level of success looking back at five Dianas in a row. These are the [types of] races Frankel would point towards.”

Brown will saddle Lemista, a 4-year-old daughter of Raven's Pass, for three-time Diana winning owner Peter Brant, who campaigned Sistercharlie [2018-19] and Just a Game [1980] to Diana scores.

Lemista earned a 100 Beyer in her North American debut in the 1 1/16-mile Grade 3 Beaugay on May 8 at Belmont, finishing a late-closing second to Diana-rival Harvey's Lil Goil.

The Irish-bred dark bay, previously trained by Ger Lyons, captured the Group 2 Kilboy Estate three starts back at the Curragh over yielding going.

Lemista has trained extensively on the Belmont inner turf following the Beaugay, posting eight works dating back to May 22, including a five-furlong effort in 1:01.80 on Sunday in company with Pocket Square [1:01.89].

“She's a top class filly. I have high hopes for her,” Brown said. “We've been pointing for this race for a while and I'm excited to get to it. I think that the time has done her well. She's been working consistently well.”

Juddmonte Farms' Pocket Square, a Group 3 winner at Deauville in October 2019 for former trainer Roger Charlton, rallied to an impressive allowance win in her North American debut on April 7 at Keeneland.

Brown said Pocket Square, by Night of Thunder, missed a breeze heading into her even fifth last out as the lukewarm favorite in the Grade 1 Longines Just a Game, a one-mile jaunt over good turf on June 5 at Belmont.

“She missed her last work with the storms that came through and maybe the soft-ish turf didn't help,” said Brown. “I really thought she was lined up really well going into the Just a Game and I was hopeful she could overcome, but things just didn't work out. She's come back and worked really super, so I'm drawing a line through it and going right back at another Grade 1 with her.”

Despite good form over soft going in Europe, Brown said he would prefer firmer footing for Pocket Square.

“I know she ran well in Europe that way [on good-firm ground], but I think she's more effective on a firm turf course from what I've seen in her training,” said Brown.

Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez will also look to extend his Diana win record to seven, piloting Pocket Square from post 2, while Irad Ortiz, Jr. will guide Lemista from post 7.

Trainer Charlie Appleby enjoyed a one-two finish with 4-year-old Godolphin fillies Althiqa and Summer Romance in the Grade 1 Longines Just a Game.

The Godolphin greys have squared off in their last three starts, dating back to the one-mile Group 2 Cape Verdi in January at Meydan won by Althiqa, a British homebred by Dark Angel. Summer Romance turned the tables on Althiqa in the nine-furlong Group 2 Balanchine in February at Meydan.

In their North American debuts, Summer Romance, an Irish-bred daughter of Kingman, set a sharp pace under Luis Saez, but could not stay off the late run of Althiqa under Hall of Famer Mike Smith.

Both fillies remained at Belmont following the Just a Game, breezing extensively on the Belmont inner turf before shipping upstate to Saratoga on Monday.

Summer Romance, who won the Group 3 Princess Elizabeth at Epsom last July, will exit post 6 under Saez, while Althiqa, who boasts a perfect in-the-money record of 10-5-2-3, will be piloted by Manny Franco from post 8.

The Estate of Harvey A. Clarke and Paul Braverman Harvey's Lil Goil will look to give Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott his fifth Diana win.

Mott, who last won the Diana in 2010 with Proviso, captured three straight editions with Sand Springs, Angara and My Typhoon from 2005-07.

A 4-year-old American Pharoah grey, Harvey's Lil Goil enjoyed a remarkable sophomore campaign, winning the Grade 3 Regret at nine furlongs over firm Churchill Downs turf last June ahead of a game third in the 10-furlong Alabama on the Saratoga main track.

The versatile filly completed her 3-year-old year with a pair of Grade 1 turf starts at Keeneland, including a win in the nine-furlong Queen Elizabeth II Cup in October over good going and a closing third in the 1 3/16-mile Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf over firm footing in November.

A prominent winner of the Beaugay in her seasonal debut on May 8 on good Belmont turf, Harvey's Lil Goil was an even fifth last out in the 10-furlong Grade 2 New York contested on yielding Belmont turf on June 4.

“It was very soft ground,” said Mott of the New York effort. “Some of our stakes have been run on really soft ground and it could have worked against her a little bit.”

Mott said a turnback in distance as well as the tighter turns of the Saratoga inner turf should benefit Harvey's Lil Goil.

“That [cutting back] won't hurt her I don't think,” said Mott. “She's run well on that type of oval previously. She won the Queen Elizabeth at Keeneland and she ran good in the Breeders' Cup at Keeneland and that's a tight turf course, so I don't think that will hurt her.”

Harvey's Lil Goil has recorded four works since the New York, including a five-furlong effort in 1:00.12 on the Oklahoma dirt training track on July 9.

“She couldn't be doing any better,” said Mott.

Junior Alvarado retains the mount from post 5.

Lael Stables' Magic Attitude, a 4-year-old daughter of the late Galileo, will look to improve off a flat seventh last out in the New York.

The British-bred bay was a Group 3 winner in France last May for trainer Fabrice Chappet before being transferred to conditioner Arnaud Delacour for a fall campaign.

In October, Magic Attitude captured the 10-furlong Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational, part of NYRA's Turf Triple series, in her first start for Delacour and followed with a third in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup.

The talented bay has made three starts this year, including a win in the 11-furlong Grade 2 Sheepshead Bay on firm Belmont turf in May. She will exit post 3 under Hall of Famer Javier Castellano in her Saratoga debut.

Madaket Stables, Tim Cambron, Anna Cambron and Bradley Thoroughbreds' La Signare made the grade with a front-running score in the 2018 Grade 3 Wonder Again traveling nine furlongs on the Belmont turf.

The 6-year-old French-bred daughter of Siyouni, trained by Brendan Walsh, has made four of her last six starts in Grade 1 company, including a third in the 1 1/16-mile Jenny Wiley on yielding Keeneland turf in April and a closing second in the nine-furlong Gamely last out on firm footing on May 31 at Santa Anita.

La Signare will emerge from the inside post under Ricardo Santana, Jr.

Phipps Stable homebred Vigilantes Way enters from a 2 1/4-length score in the Eatontown, a 1 1/16-mile test over firm Monmouth Park turf on June 20.

The 4-year-old Medaglia d'Oro bay, out of the Unbridled mare Salute, is a half-sister to Grade 1-winning millionaire Mr Speaker and Grade 1-winning steeplechaser Snap Decision.

Trained by Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey, Vigilantes Way boasts a record of 12-5-2-3 and will be piloted from post 4 by Jose Ortiz.

The Diana is slated as Race 10 on Saturday's 11-race card. First post is 1:05 p.m. Eastern. Saratoga Live will present daily television coverage of the 40-day summer meet on FOX Sports. For the complete Saratoga Live broadcast schedule, and additional programming information, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule.

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Normalcy Returns as Saratoga Meet Opens

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Once again, Saratoga opens its world-renowned race meet with the question: How many?

During the COVID-19 summer of 2020, the issue was whether there might be some loosening on the ban on spectators during the 40-day season. That never happened, though a limited number of owners were allowed to see their horses run, and some of the world's best Thoroughbreds played to a oh-so quiet empty house at America's oldest race track.

With restrictions completely lifted in New York State in time for the 153rd season, the challenge of the week is to predict the size of the crowd that will attend the 10-race card on opening day Thursday. While the range varies, the consensus is: huge.

“I think the place is ready to explode,” said trainer H. James Bond. “Every phone call, every person that I talked to about Saratoga, everybody just can't wait to get here and get going. I think it's going to be a coming-out party like they've never seen before.”

New York Racing Association officials knew that enthusiasm for the 2021 meet was high even before they announced free admission on opening day for people who could prove that they are vaccinated. The free admission offer was announced after New York reached a 70% vaccination level in mid-June.

NYRA president and CEO David O'Rourke chuckled at the suggestion that it might be a Saturday-sized crowd on Thursday.

“That seems it's a really good way of putting it,” he said. “Yeah, I would think 30,000 plus, if I was to put a line on the number of attendance.”

This will be the third season to open on a Thursday since NYRA reworked the Saratoga schedule, moving to five-day weeks– Wednesdays through Sundays–and starting proceedings a week earlier in July. NYRA announced a crowd of 22,591 for the rainy opener in 2019.

Saratoga's opening day has long been a festive occasion at the track on the south side of Union Avenue. This time around, the excitement level is expected to be a few notches above the norm.

“I think it's going to be a little bit of a celebration, right?,” O'Rourke said. “Last year was a strange year, to put it lightly, for everyone and being up there, racing without fans. Now, to be able to welcome everyone back and in one way, celebrate the success we've had in terms of getting through this with the vaccination rates in New York, we figured it was a nice little gesture just to offer free admission as a celebratory kind of nod.”

Four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown grew up in nearby Mechanicville and embraced racing at Saratoga Race Course. He is anxious to turn the page back to the Saratoga he knew before the pandemic and said he expects a special opening day.

“I've definitely been looking forward to it for a long time now,” Brown said. “I'm so happy everyone's going to be back and full capacity and things are looking pretty lively already.”

Brown said that the 2020 meet was sort of depressing.

“We tried to maintain some positivity because NYRA did offer the nice races up here,” he said. “We had a lot of nice horses to run and we won some big races, but it was so different to go through it with no fans there, no family there. It's just a very empty feeling throughout the meet, I think for everybody. Like I said, at the end of the meet last year, hopefully that's the only time we ever have to do that.”

As has been the case since the mid-1950s, the GIII $150,000 Schuylerville S. for 2-year-old fillies is the headliner of the opening-day program. It will be the 103rd running of the six-furlong race. The Schuylerville will be preceded by the GIII Quick Call S., the 5 1/2-furlong turf sprint for the sophomore set. Following the four-day opening weekend, Saratoga will have six five-day weeks and will complete its upstate New York run with a six-day week closing on Labor Day, Sept. 6.

The season will include 76 stakes worth a total of $21.5 million. Saratoga is the home to 20 Grade I stakes, the most of any track. The lineup this year includes the $600,000 Flower Bowl and the $1-million Jockey Club Gold Cup, which were moved from Belmont Park and will be contested on Saturday, Sept. 6. The $1-million GI Whitney S. is scheduled for Aug. 7 as the marquee race on a program with five stakes.

The GI $1.25-million Runhappy Travers S., the highest-profile race on the Saratoga calendar every summer, returns to its familiar late-season date on Aug. 28–it was moved ahead a few weeks to be prep for the GI Kentucky Derby in 2020–and will cap a program with six Grade I races. Belmont S.-winning trainer Brad Cox is aiming Godolphin's GI Belmont S. winner Essential Quality (Tapit) for the 152nd Travers, the oldest stakes for 3-year-olds in the U.S.

Essential Quality has been in Saratoga for a couple of weeks and worked four furlongs on :50.44 July 10. He is on course for the local Travers prep, the $600,000 GII Jim Dandy S. July 31.

Standing in front Essential Quality's stall this week, Cox, the 2020 Eclipse Award-winning trainer, acknowledged that it's nice to have a standout 3-year-old colt in the country in his care.

“Well, yeah, It's good,” he said, pausing a second for emphasis, “if they win.”

Cox said the gray son of Tapit will be on a Saturday work schedule for his Saratoga races.

“My job is to make sure everything's right for him,” Cox said, “and he's prepared, prepared properly and everything's going the way it needs to go and giving him every shot to succeed up here. And, so far, so good.”

On Friday, Aug. 6, Bob Baffert's 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah–who lost in the Travers at the Graveyard of Favorites–will be inducted in the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Racing. The other members of this year's class are trainers Todd Pletcher, who, like American Pharaoh, was elected in his first year of eligibility, and steeplechase trainer Jack Fisher.

The ceremony could not be held last summer, so the 2020 class will be inducted: racehorses Tom Bowling and Wise Dan; jockey Darrel McHargue; trainer Mark Casse; and Pillars of the Turf the late Alice Headley Chandler, J. Keene Daingerfield, Jr. and George D. Widener, Jr.

Pletcher's unbeaten stable star, Shadwell's 'TDN Rising Star' Malathaat (Curlin), is scheduled to make her first start since winning the GI Longines Kentucky Oaks in the GI Coaching Club American Oaks July 24. Pletcher won his 14th Saratoga training title, but said his current stable does not have the balance to get the job done this year. He said he is looking forward to a typical Saratoga season with thousands of people on the grounds.

“Well, I think it's going to feel normal again,” he said. “I think bigger question is like how strange did last year feel? Saratoga is the one place where we race that has the most electric crowd, the most enthusiastic crowd. The fans are very knowledgeable. It's what you've grown accustomed to your whole career and last year just didn't seem right. At the same time, we were blessed that we're able to continue racing and because of the television product, maybe hopefully we've gained some new fans. Maybe, you know, there was some silver lining to the whole thing, but it'll be nice to get back to normal.”

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