Trainer Brown's Barn Just Keeps on Rolling

After a record setting performance at the spring/summer meet at Belmont Park, trainer Chad Brown thought he might get out of the gate a little slow at Saratoga Race Course.

Nope.

Halfway through the 40-day meet at the Spa, Brown has picked up right where he left off at Belmont where he won an unequaled 47 races at the spring/summer meet on the way to his seventh title.

At halftime of the Spa meet, Brown has 23 winners—he added two more Aug. 10—seven more than Todd Pletcher.

"It's hard to do," Brown, sitting in his office on the Oklahoma Training Track Wednesday, said about maintaining winning ways from one successful meet into another. "Somehow, we have been able to keep it going and the horses have stayed in form. It shows you the depth of our stable and my entire team is so focused on getting the horses to perform on race day. Very proud of them."

With 20 more days to go, Brown, who has three of the last four Saratoga training titles, is cautiously optimistic that he could have a better second half than he did the first.

And his first 20 days, were pretty good.

"I do feel like we have a good second half of the meet coming up as far as what horses I see scheduled to come up," he said. "But you can never take anything for granted with the weather, the health of the horses. Things can turn on a dime in this game. I just hope we keep everyone healthy moving forward and we don't have too many rainy days."

Brown is still looking for his first win in the $1.25 million Travers Stakes, which will be run Aug. 27. He said he is "definitely" pointing Jeff Drown's Zandon , second in the Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) July 30 and Juddmonte's Artorius , winner of the Curlin Stakes July 26, to the Midsummer Derby.

He said he has yet to decide where he will run Klaravich Stables' Early Voting , the Preakness Stakes (G1) winner.