Zulu Kingdom gives Chad Brown milestone 3,000th career win

Five-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown registered his 3,000th career victory in style when Zulu Kingdom scored wire-to-wire in Friday's Grade 1 Maker's Mark Mile at Keeneland.

With dual Eclipse Award-winning jockey Flavien Prat aboard, the 4-year-old Ten Sovereigns ridgling returned from an eight-month layoff to post a three-quarter-length victory over One Stripe. It marked the second Grade 1 score for Zulu Kingdom, who captured the American Turf (G1) last year at Churchill Downs as part of a 9: 7-0-0 career ledger – with eight of those starts for Brown and owners Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, William Strauss and Michael J. Caruso.

"It was really special. I'll always remember it. It was great to do it in a prestigious race like the Maker's Mark and with a great horse that has been so consistent," Brown said. "Aside from one start in the Breeders' Cup as a juvenile, he's crossed the finish line first every time I've run him. That's hard to do on turf when you have to make your own trip and run on various courses. He's a very rare horse. I'm so proud of him, he's become a bit of a barn favorite."

Zulu Kingdom won his first start in France in June 2024 for trainer Andre Fabre. A private purchase brought him to Brown, and he reeled off wins later that year in the With Anticipation (G3) at Saratoga and the Pilgrim (G2) at Belmont at the Big A ahead of a seventh in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar. He added wins last year in the Columbia at Tampa Bay Downs and the Manila (G3) at Saratoga, where he also crossed the wire first in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame (G2) but was disqualified and placed fourth.

Brown, 47, boasts 36 individual training titles on the New York Racing Association (NYRA) circuit and has topped the table as NYRA's yearly leading trainer on nine occasions (2015-22, 2024).

The native of Mechanicville, N.Y., trained his first winner in 2007 and has won five Eclipse Awards as outstanding trainer (2016-19, 2024). He has compiled 19 Breeders' Cup victories in addition to victories by Cloud Computing (2017) and Early Voting (2022) in the Preakness.

Brown credited his team members across all divisions for their contributions to the milestone.

"It's an achievement shared by so many team members past and present as well as our clients, jockeys and horses. It takes a lot over 18 1/2-years now of training horses and there's so many important people in those groups I've mentioned and I'm very appreciative for that," Brown said.

Brown added victory 3,001 and yet another Grade 1 to his ledger Saturday at Keeneland when Segesta dead-heated for victory with Expensive Queen in the Jenny Wiley (G1).

He will look to expand his stakes account Friday at the Big A when he sends out the formidable trio of Oversubscribed, Accent and Al Jafara in the listed $150,000 Plenty of Grace in search of a record-extending sixth victory in the first turf stakes of the year on the NYRA circuit.

"I look forward to the start of turf racing in New York. It's a fresh course and we rested a lot of our horses for the winter," Brown said. "I have a nice group of fillies entered, so we'll see."

Among his many standout performers are 2019 horse of the year Bricks and Mortar, 2024 Breeders' Cup Classic winner Sierra Leone and multiple Grade 1-winning multi-millionaire turf mares Sistercharlie and Lady Eli.

Brown, who graduated from Cornell with a degree in animal science in 2001, worked for Shug McGaughey and Bobby Frankel, both members of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, before going out on his own in 2007. He led North America's trainers by earnings on six occasions (2016-19, 2022 and 2024) and has rapidly progressed through milestones, saddling his 1,000th winner at Saratoga on Aug. 24, 2016, with Mr Maybe and his 2,000th career victory on Aug. 6, 2021, at the Spa with Digital Software.