By Bill Finley
Unraced since finishing second in the 2021 GI Mr. D. S. at Arlington Park, Domestic Spending (GB) (Kingman {GB}) is being seriously considered for the GI Breeders' Cup Mile, reports trainer Chad Brown. The now 5-year-old gelding had been sidelined with a soft tissue injury suffered prior to last year's Breeders' Cup.
“The horse has really come around well,” Brown said. “Obviously, he's been off a long time and had a serious injury, a soft tissue injury. We gave him plenty of time to rehab and the horse is sound and happy and training well. I really don't see any other races for him. I moved him over to Keeneland and he will have a couple more works. If he continues to work well, I will enter him in the Mile and see if he gets in.”
Domestic Spending returned to the work tab on Aug. 29 at Saratoga. In his most recent workout, he breezed five furlongs on the grass at Keeneland on Oct. 15 in 1:01.
“This has been a pleasant surprise,” Brown said. “I'm not making any predictions on how he'll fare off a layoff of almost 15 months. But he's certainly a world-class turf horse when he's right. We'll have so see if he can come back and perform at the same level. Based on his workouts there's certainly a chance that he will.”
Brown acknowledged that coming into the race off such a long layoff and without a prep could be an issue.
“In a perfect world, you definitely would want a prep,” he said. “It just hasn't been available to us and you have to play the hand you're dealt. You'd only try to do something like this if you had a world-class race horse. Other than that, it would be wishful thinking to think you'd have success doing this. But he's one of the best I've trained.”
Domestic Spending is 6-for-8 lifetime and also has wins in the GI Manhattan S., the GI Hollywood Derby and the GI Turf Classic S. at Churchill Downs.
In other Breeders' Cup news from the Brown stable, the trainer said he has not yet decided which race Jack Christopher (Munnings) will run in. The choices are the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint and the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile.
“He's undefeated around one turn and his only loss (in the GI Haskell S.) is around two turns,” Brown said. “That said, six furlongs is a little sharp for him. A mile is a good distance for him. I'll observe how he's doing and go with my gut. Its not the first time we've had to figure out a distance on a horse. Sometimes you get it right and sometimes you get it wrong. If there's no perfect fit you try to find the best fit. I want to try to put him in the race where he has the best chance of winning. When you try to jam a square peg into a round hole and take into account too many factors you can get yourself into trouble.”
As usual, Brown will have a deep and talented group competing in this years's Breeders' Cup. In addition to Jack Christopher and Domestic Spending, his list of potential starters consists of: In Italian (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) and Rougir (Fr) (Territories {Ire} in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf and possibly Virginia Joy (Ger) (Soldier Hollow {GB}); Regal Glory (Animal Kingdom) in the Mile; Free Look (Tapit) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf; Raging Sea (Curlin) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies; Oxymore (Austern {Aus}) and I'm Very Busy (Cloud Computing) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf; Good Night Olive (Ghostzapper) in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint; Search Results (Flatter) in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff; Blazing Sevens (Good Magic) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Highly Motivated (Into Mischief) and Pipeline (Speightstown) are possible starters in the Dirt Mile.
“We have come into the Breeders' Cup with more favorites than we'll have this year,” Brown said. “I'm not going into any particular race with a Lady Eli, a Rushing Fall or a Newspaperofrecord. But we have a lot of nice horses and definitely have some live shots to add another Breeders' Cup win. No matter how many you run you just hope to win one.”
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