Trainer Chad Brown doubles down in search of Matriarch victory
Chad Brown sent six horses and as many handlers here for the Grade I stakes on the closing weekend of the Bing Crosby Fall meeting in 2016. Three for the Hollywood Derby and three for the Matriarch.
The result for the nation’s leading trainer was a 1-2-7 finish with Annals of Time, Beach Patrol and Camelot Kitten in the Hollywood Derby and a 2-4-5 placing with Roca Rojo, Mexican Gold and Zindaya in the Matriarch.
Brown doesn’t have a representative in today’s $300,000 Hollywood Derby. But he’ll have two to contend, Off Limits and Rubilinda, in Sunday’s Matriarch, a mile turf event for fillies and mares that was won last year by Miss Temple City.
The 2016 Hollywood Derby was the first Del Mar Stakes win for Brown, 38, a protégé of the late Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel. Brown added two more during the Breeders’ Cup here on November 3-4, saddling Rushing Fall to win the $1 million Juvenile Fillies Turf and Good Magic to an upset of Del Mar Futurity winner Bolt d’Oro in the $2 million Juvenile.
Brown, who made his first visit to Del Mar for the Breeders’ Cup, will remain at the stable headquarters in New York this weekend and has sent assistant Jose Hernandez to handle the saddling duties for his charges.
“We came in on Monday and they’ve had good gallops every day since we’ve been here,” Hernandez said. “I think (Brown) has had these races planned for them for a while and they’re ready.”
Off Limits comes in on a three-race winning streak with the last two being accomplished in the Grade III Nobel Damsel and Grade III Athena at Belmont Park in September and October. The 5-year-old Irish-bred mare, owned by Martin Schwartz, has been in good form all year long, notching four of her six career wins in five 2017 starts and earning $363,800 to boost her career total to $454,680.
Rubilinda, a 3-year-old daughter of the English standout Frankel, has three wins in four starts in a career that commenced in May.
Joel Rosario and Jose Ortiz, are in from New York to ride Off Limits and Rubilinda respectively. Rosario has been in the irons for Off Limits’ last two starts, Ortiz for all four for Rubilinda.
The field from the rail: Mrs McDougal (Javier Castellano, 15-1), Lull (Flavien Prat, 5-1), Pretty Girl (Brice Blanc, 20-1), Belvoir Bay (Kent Desormeaux, 20-1), Insta Erma (Corey Nakatani, 12-1), Thundering Sky (Rajiv Maragh, 20-1), Cambodia (Drayden Van Dyke, 3-1), Off Limits (Joel Rosario, 5-1), Rubilinda (Jose Ortiz, 10-1) Hawksmoor (Julien Leparoux, 8-1), Miss Julia Star (Antoine Hamelin, 20-1) and Kitten’s Roar (John Velazquez, 7-2).
The Matriarch goes as the seventh on a nine-race program.
Brown also has morning line favorite Analyze It for the Grade III $100,000 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes, a mile turf run for 2-year-olds which goes as the ninth race on Sunday, the last race of the meeting.
A Kentucky-bred son of Point of Entry owned by William H. Lawrence, Analyze It made his racing debut at a mile on turf at Belmont Park on October 28 and romped home by 6 ¼ lengths under Ortiz, who retains the mount.
“That was really impressive, and he’s made the trip well and looks really good,” said Hernandez, a traveling assistant for Brown for the last nine years.
Source: Del Mar Thoroughbred Club