Chad Brown

Spaliday came running late to annex the GII Sands Point Stakes at Aqueduct Saturday. The 3-1 shot lost contact with the field, trailing a strung-out bunch as Macanga led by some six lengths down the backstretch. Spaliday made rapid progress on the far turn and rallied powerfully in deep stretch to just edge the pacesetter for her first graded stakes score. "Around the three-eighths marker, I was looking to see if she could hit the board in this race because I didn't think she could get there," said winning trainer...

Raging Sea, who upset champion Idiomatic (Curlin) in the GI Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga last time out, will likely head next to the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff after outbattling a stubborn Batucada in the GII Beldame Stakes at Aqueduct Sunday. The 1-9 favorite was allowed to settle into stride and was unhurried while racing off the early pace. She rushed up into contention on the bend and came with a full head of steam as longshot Batucada turned for home with a one-length advantage. Raging Sea eyeballed the gray...

Expectations were high for the three Grade I preps for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile run Saturday as the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity, the GI Champagne Stakes and the GI American Pharoah Stakes all included horses who seemed to have vast potential. And most came through. Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie) was the star performer in the Champagne, staying undefeated and adding a second Grade I to win to his resume. In the American Pharoah it all came down, as it so often does, to which Bob Baffert would win, and the...

Never before in his nine-race career had 'TDN Rising Star' Carl Spackler (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) led at the first or second call of any of his races. Never before, even more remarkably, had Chad Brown unsaddled a winner of the GI Coolmore Turf Mile at Keeneland. But, drawn widest in a field of nine for Saturday's 'Win and You're In' qualifier for the GI Breeders' Cup Mile the flashy chestnut was ridden for speed from out there by Tyler Gaffalione and found extra in the final furlong to...

Returning to the site of her previous victories in the 2022 GI QE II Challenge Cup and last year's GI First Lady Stakes, Peter Brant's Gina Romantica (Into Mischief) sat an ideal trip from a close-up third in defense of her title in the latter over a fast turf course, came after pacesetting favorite Ag Bullet (Twirling Candy) just inside the eighth pole and easily held sway for the victory. Sent off the 33-10 second choice behind Ag Bullet, the surprising 5-2 market leader off a potentially anomalous victory in...

'TDN Rising Star' Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie) ran by them all to remain unbeaten and provide his freshman sire with a rolling Grade I double in Saturday's 'Win and You're In' GI Champagne Stakes at the Belmont at the Big A meeting. McKinzie's Scottish Lassie, a debut third as the favorite at Saratoga, broke her maiden in style with a runaway success in the GI Frizette Stakes one race earlier on the card. Favored at 1-2, Chancer McPatrick broke like a shot from his outside draw--not the case in either of...

Continuing an important weekend as next month's Breeders' Cup World Championships rapidly approach, Keeneland's GI Juddmonte Spinster Stakes headlines Sunday's graded stakes action spanning from coast to coast. A 'Win and You're In' for the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff, the Spinster has six contenders signed on, including last season's champion older mare Idiomatic (Curlin), who draws the rail under regular pilot Florent Geroux. The winner of a trio of Grade I stakes in 2023--capped off by the Breeders' Cup Distaff at Santa Anita--the Juddmonte homebred has proven consistent at...

Saturday is one of those 'burn the candle at both ends' kind of days for horseplayers, as no fewer than 17 graded stakes take place within a six-hour window. Eight of those events serve as 'Win and You're In' qualifying events for various Breeders' Cup races, and even those races that don't offer a free pass are liable to toss up a runner or two or three at Del Mar in four weeks' time. Keeneland Race Course brands its opening three days of racing as 'Fall Stars Weekend' and who's...

'TDN Rising Star' Senza Parole (Gun Runner) will be scratched from Saturday's GI Frizette at Aqueduct and will not make her next start until some time next year, reports trainer Chad Brown. She was the 3-5 morning line favorite in the race and, with a victory, would have been considered one of the horses to beat in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. "Unfortunately, she's scratched out of this race," Brown said. "She came up with an injury coming out of her last workout (a four-furlong work at Saratoga on...

John Kimmel had $25,000, and wanted an Exclusive Native filly. But he had to pass up his first choice, at Fasig-Tipton in 1978, after she went to $32,000. She turned out to be Genuine Risk. A first experience to put most people off, right? Kimmel gives a wry chuckle and shakes his head. "I'd have been ruined," he says. "I was a sophomore in vet school. Can you imagine? I'd have been wrecked." As it was, he had proved his eye. He continued absorbing the bittersweet lessons routinely dispensed by...

The weather did not bother 'TDN Rising Star' Ways and Means (Practical Joke--Strong Incentive, by Warrior's Reward) as she skimmed the Aqueduct slop and easily took home the GII Gallant Bloom Stakes on Sunday afternoon. Last seen capturing the GI Test Stakes at Saratoga Aug. 3, that effort came on the back of a career best two back--at least on paper--over a Saratoga first-level allowance group June 6. She'd dominated those rivals by 8 1/4 lengths and earned a 104 Beyer, stronger than anything else this field had managed to...

One of two runners in the field for trainer Chad Brown, it was 4-5 favorite Zulu Kingdom (Ire) (Ten Sovereigns {Ire}) who stayed perfect and punched his ticket into the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf with a win in Saturday's GII Pilgrim Stakes at Aqueduct. Shipped to the United States after breaking his maiden at Saint-Cloud and selling privately to the partnership of Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, William Strauss & Michael Caruso in early June, he joined up with Brown in time to impress with a narrow win in the...