'Robin' Adds Sparkle to Brown's Saratoga Meet

For a trainer with a small string of horses like Bruce Brown, any win at Saratoga Race Course is a moment to treasure.

In a typical year, he might win two or three races at the Spa, and after a win on the Aug. 13 card, he already has two with 17 racing dates left. That was thanks to the New York-bred Fast N Fearious , who won the second race of the day for the Luchncup Syndicate, a $35,000 claiming race for 3-year-olds and up who had never won three races.

"It's so tough to win here," said Brown, who was flanked by his young son, Nicholas, during post-race television interviews. "You feel like you're bringing a knife to a gun fight in so many of these races. You'll drop down and there will be six other horses dropping more than you are. It can be disheartening. So, anytime you win at Saratoga it's huge."

Yet even though the gelded son of Palace Malice   paid a generous $34.40, it was Brown's first victory at the meet that he will never forget.

Back on July 23, it was his speedy and gritty mare Robin Sparkles  who provided him with not only an initial 2022 victory at the Spa when she captured the $200,000 5 1/2-furlong Caress Stakes (G3T), but also gave him the first graded stakes win in a training career that started in 2008 and has numbered more than 4,100 starts.

"That was huge to get my first graded stakes win and get it up here," said 46-year-old Brown, who has 13 horses stabled at Saratoga and is 2-for-12 at the meet. "That filly has been so good to us. She just tries and runs her race every time. It's good when those kind of horses run their best races on the right day."

The 5-year-old Robin Sparkles, owned by Michael Schrader, is about as much of a rags-to-riches story as anyone will find at the racetrack. The daughter of Elusive Quality  bred by Hibiscus Stables cost just $30,000 when she was originally purchased by Linda Rice as a yearling from the Indian Creek consignment at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton New York Bred Yearling Sale. 

Yet before she could make it to the racetrack, she was gifted to Schrader and has become a $530,668 earner with a record of 9-2-3 in 16 career starts for Brown.

"She always tries," Brown said. "You face the best of the best here and when you can get a victory in a graded stakes at Saratoga, it's as good as it gets."

Brown plans to run Robin Sparkles Aug. 20 in the $150,000 Smart N Fancy Stakes at the Spa, another 5 1/2-furlong turf sprint for fillies and mares, but he knows a rather loud clock is ticking as Schrader intends to enter the mare in a sale this fall.

Should all go well in the Smart N Fancy, where she will be facing a field similar to the Caress, Brown is toying with the option of running in the Sept. 24 $300,000 Turf Monster Stakes (G3T) at Parx Racing against the boys. 

"It's five furlongs," Brown said about the Turf Monster, "and the shorter the better for her."

From there, who knows, another 5 1/2-furlong sprint, the Nov. 5 $1 million Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1T) at Keeneland, could be a fitting finale. 

"She's going to Kentucky for the sale in November, so maybe we run here there at the Breeders' Cup. The distance fits," said Brown, who was an assistant to John Forbes when he campaigned the successful stallion Tale of the Cat . "Whatever happens, they can't take away the graded stakes from her. Anything beyond that is icing on the cake."