This time, Brown brings in fresher Travers Stakes contenders
His resume is not quite a dozen years old, which, by horse training standards, is relatively youthful. But if you unfurled Chad Brown's scroll of achievements, it could easily be mistaken for one belonging to a far more seasoned conditioner.
The three-time Eclipse Award winner has saddled more than 1,600 winners of $167 million. Twenty of his charges have reached millionaire status, including the nation's top horse, Bricks and Mortar, who has earned more than $4.5 million this year alone. He has 12 Breeders' Cup victories to his credit, won the 2018 Preakness with Cloud Computing, and with more than four months left in 2019 has 39 graded stakes wins.
Well on his way to a third straight training title at Saratoga Race Course, the 40-year-old native of nearby Mechanicville, N.Y. has thus far hoisted the trophies for the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks and Grade 1 Alabama for the first time.
But of all the milestone moments Brown has enjoyed within the confines of Saratoga, a victory in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes has eluded his grasp.
"I know this has been the one race he's always wanted to win growing up close to here. To be able to win that race for him would be extremely special. It would be incredible," said Madaket Stables' Sol Kumin, whose Looking At Bikinis joins the Brown-trained Highest Honors in the starting gate for Saturday's "Mid-Summer Derby."
Since 2011, Brown has sent out eight starters without hitting the board, including race favorite Good Magic and Gronkowski, ninth and eighth, respectively, last year. Bowman's Causeway, his first starter, was seventh in 2011; his second, Street Life, was 11th the following year. Five years later, Brown's trio of Gift Box, Connect, and My Man Sam finished fourth, sixth and eighth, and Classic winner Cloud Computing was eighth in 2017.
With lightly raced Highest Honors and Looking At Bikinis, Brown maintains a victory by either would not fit his definition of an upset.
"The thing is last year, on paper, [Good Magic and Gronkowski] looked like they had a really good shot and I felt really good going into the race," Brown said. "But in hindsight, those horses had a long campaign. I think coming into a race like this at a 1 ¼-miles after participating in the Triple Crown - any leg of it, let alone Good Magic who was in the first two legs, which was very grueling - by the time we got to the Travers, I think those horses were tired and they weren't effective.
"This year, we have two really fresh horses in sort of a wide-open race, so I feel really good about it."
Sidelined while training for his debut last year, Highest Honors - a William S. Farish homebred - returned to the work tab in February. While a Triple Crown campaign was out of reach, Brown felt he had a runner whowould ultimately thrive over the classic distance.
"When we brought him back in that first workout in February, I texted Mr. Farish and said, 'This horse just moves so well and he's giving me such a great feel' and I said to him 'I think this is our Travers horse.' And here he is. He hasn't won the race but he's gotten himself here," said Brown.
After running second at 6 1/2 furlongs in his career debut in April at Keeneland, Highest Honors stretched out and broke his maiden going 1 1/16-miles at Belmont Park in June. A class test in the form of the Curlin on July 26 at Saratoga followed, and it was one the gray colt emphatically passed in the form of a 1 ½-length victory over fellow Travers entrant Endorsed.
Finishing third that day, 6 1/2 lengths back, was Looking At Bikinis who, like his barn mate, was in the midst of playing catch-up on the established members of the sophomore class. Owned by Long Lake Stable, Madaket Stables, Thomas Coleman, and Doheny Racing Stable, Looking At Bikinis had won handily in gate-to-wire fashion first time out at Belmont Park last September and scored from off the pace in his seasonal bow going a mile on June 27.
"We were a little disappointed in the last race, but I think the rail was extremely dead. It just was unlucky....but he's done everything right since he's been with Chad to feel like we have a chance," said Kumin, who also co-owned last year's Travers winner, Catholic Boy.
For all he has already achieved, it is his accomplishments at Saratoga that hold an added layer of sentiment for Brown.
"You keep raising the bar and you don't want to disappoint anybody whether it's your clients, or the fans or anyone really," Brown said. "But that's what we want. You want to play at this level, you want the best horses to train, then you have to keep raising the bar. Luckily, I have a great team to do that. And it's a lot of fun and I wouldn't change anything about it."