New Year Brings New Challenges for Brown

Bluegrass basketball fans might recall the 2009-10 University of Kentucky men's basketball season when coach John Calipari had five players on that squad who were taken in the first round of the NBA Draft.

It was a great formula for winning 35 games that season, but it created some gaping holes for Calipari to plug in 2010-11.

Trainer Chad Brown can relate to that experience.

As the four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer embarks on his stable's 2021 campaign, he surely lost the equivalent of five first-round draft choices—and then some—with the retirements of Rushing Fall, Sistercharlie, Uni, Newspaperofrecord, Complexity , Fog of War , and Instilled Regard . Each of them were grade 1 winners and a strong case can be made that Rushing Fall and Sistercharlie may one day be enshrined in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga.

Combined they accounted for 42 wins with Brown (22 of them in grade 1 stakes) and earnings of more than $9.7 million—not to mention four Breeders' Cup wins and two Eclipse Awards, with Rushing Fall a strong contender for a third as the 2020 female turf champion later this month.

"There's a lot of changes. You see these horses off at the sale. You completed your work and you're feeling proud and you feel a sense of accomplishment. But then you go back to your barn you see all the empty stalls," Brown said.

With owners such as Seth Klarman of Klaravich Stables and Peter Brant heavily supporting one of the sport's biggest stables, the chances of Brown having the kind of year that would keep a college coach out of the NCAA Tournament are fairly remote. Yet unlike last year, when he entered the year with several horses quite capable of winning an Eclipse Award, his sizable stable lacks a runner who can be painted as a favorite for a year-end championship.

"We're rebuilding. It's difficult but we have to move forward. A good friend told me it only takes one or two special horses to make it a great season and we've been able to do that each year," Brown said. "If you want to coach at the top you have to believe there's another good set of recruits coming in and you'll get some new stars. It's the same thing here. Some years, you get those stars; some years you don't. Fortunately for us most years there have been new stars, but you can't take that for granted."

Even with all of those "graduated starters," Brown still has a strong lineup. While most of his top runners will not return until turf racing perks up in the spring, there's a strong nucleus headed by two of Brant's grade 1 winners, Dunbar Road and Raging Bull.

Dunbar Road, winner of the 2019 Alabama Stakes (G1), captured the Delaware Handicap (G2) last year and the 5-year-old daughter of Quality Road  capped off 2020 by finishing third behind Monomoy Girl in the Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1).

Raging Bull, a multiple grade 1 winner by Dark Angel, won only one of five starts in 2020, but has made his last 11 starts in grade 1 stakes with two wins, two seconds and three thirds. 

Though Brown will most likely sit out the upcoming Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Stakes (G1T), by year's end he could have one of the top older grass runners in Klaravich's Domestic Spending. The son of Kingman has won four of his five career starts and closed out last year's 3-year-old season with wins in the Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes—which will be a grade 1 race this year—and the Hollywood Derby (G1T).

Also expected to return in 2021 are grade 1 winners Digital Age, Etoile, and Viadera as well as Blowout, My Sister Nat, a half sister to Sistercharlie, and Rockemperor, who are grade 1-placed.

After winning 320 stakes since 2016—when his streak of four straight Eclipse Awards began—Brown's  bid for an initial stakes win in 2021 was delayed when a quarter crack led to Analyze It being scratched from the Jan. 9 Tropical Turf Stakes (G3T). The 6-year-old multiple-grade 3 winner was the 2-1 morning-line favorite in the mile turf stakes.

Among his 3-year-olds, Brown has a promising duo in Klaravich's Highly Motivated and Risk Taking.

Highly Motivated, a son of Into Mischief , won the Nyquist Stakes on the Nov. 6 Breeders' Cup undercard at Keeneland. Risk Taking, a Medaglia d'Oro  colt, won a Dec. 13 maiden race at Aqueduct Racetrack and is being pointed toward the Feb. 6 Withers Stakes (G3) at the Big A.

Brown also unveiled a sharp debut winner Jan. 3 at Gulfstream Park in Klaravich's Search Results, a 3-year-old daughter of Flatter  who drew off to a four-length victory, and took a Jan. 9 six-furlong maiden race at the Florida track with Shadwell Stable's first-time starter Lamutanaatty, a 3-year-old Into Mischief colt.

While the pandemic was a bitter financial blow to the entire industry, Brown absorbed a powerful gut punch due to cancellations, purse reductions, and the cancellation of the Keeneland spring meet that often serves as a springboard for his top runners. After racking up career-best earnings of $31,112,144 in 2019, the figure dropped to $16,596,956 last year. It marked the first time since Brown embarked on his training career in 2007 that he did not increase his earnings from one year to the next.

"We're coming off a rough year but we're getting prepared and we'll try our best," Brown said. "We have some new shooters in the barn and I'm optimistic one of them or a handful of them will pop up and fill some shoes."

If Brown wants some encouragement on that front, he should text Calipari. After losing all those starters in 2010, UK advanced to the Final Four the following year.

Some people rebuild. Some people reload.

Judging by the last decade-and-a-half, even without all those "starters," Chad Brown seems a safe bet to reload.