Brown Sends Out Three in Big A's Hill Prince

Moving the $250,000 Hill Prince Stakes (G2T) back a month has surely changed itineraries for starters in the turf stakes for 3-year-olds.

Originally a spring/summer stakes, when the Hill Prince was shifted to October in 2014, it became a suitable stepping stone for a trip out west to run in the Hollywood Derby (G1T).

Now, in its Nov. 18 spot at Aqueduct Racetrack, the Hill Prince is too close to the Dec. 2 Hollywood Derby. So, a different grade 1 opportunity could await an impressive winner of the 1 1/8-mile stakes. Namely, the Jan. 27 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Stakes (G1T).

"These late season turf races for 3-year-olds are the final graduating class for horses running in the big turf races next year," trainer Chad Brown said.

High hopes are surely in order for the connections of the nine turf starters (Crupi  is a main-track-only entrant) who hope to turn their final turf start of the year into highly productive 4-year-old campaigns in 2024.

Brown, a three-time winner of the Hill Prince, has three such hopefuls in I'm Very Busy , Equitize , and Faraday . 

Team Hanley, Richard Schermerhorn, and Paul Braverman's I'm Very Busy is the most experienced and accomplished of the trio.

Second in the Pilgrim Stakes (G2T) a year ago, he was a wide 10th in the 2022 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T) when beaten by less than four lengths.

His 3-year-old season started with two losses but last time out he returned to top form with a 4 1/2-length score in an Oct. 4 allowance race at the Big A. 

"We experimented with blinkers and took them off for the last race," Brown said about the son of his 2017 Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Cloud Computing  . "I was trying to regain that form he had at 2 and his last race was very good. He finally ran to his works. He's back in stakes competition but he needs to prove that he can handle the mile-and-an-eighth."

Klaravich Stable's Equitize was sidelined by minor setbacks since his winning March 15 debut at Tampa Bay Downs and the son of Kingman   will be making his first start in eight months in the Hill Prince.

"He's doing fine. I would have preferred to run him in an allowance race but we are running out of turf races in New York and I want to run him before I move him," Brown said. "It's a big ask here but I'm looking to get him back on the track late in the season."

William Lawrence and Woodslane Farm's Faraday, a full brother to $815,437 earner Wolfie's Dynaghost  and half brother to $2.6 million earner Sadler's Joy , is coming off allowance and maiden wins. 

Brown hoped to run Faraday against older horses in the Nov. 11 Red Smith Stakes (G2T) but he did not crack the main body of the race, making a chance to run against 3-year-olds attractive, even if Brown would prefer more than nine furlongs for the late-running son of Ghostzapper  .

The field also includes the undefeated Integration  (Quality Road  ), who won the Virginia Derby (G3T) in his second start for trainer Shug McGaughey and owners West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford Racing, and Whisper Hill Farm's Classic Catch  (Classic Empire ), who was second in the Jockey Club Derby Invitational Stakes for trainer Todd Pletcher.