Brown Runs 1-2-3 in The Very One Stakes

Trainer Chad Brown finished as well as he could March 5 in the $150,000 The Very One Stakes (gr. IIIT) at Gulfstream Park.



Martin Schwartz's Olorda unexpectedly set the pace and held on to win the 1 3/16-mile race—her first graded score in her fourth U.S. try—and was trailed by Brown stablemates Dacita and Guapaza.

"You can't get better than that," said Brown assistant George Abreu. "They have all been training very well."



A group III winner in France—she took the Prix Vanteaux (Fr-III) in May of last year—the 4-year-old German-bred Lord of England filly struggled in her first three U.S. starts. She ran 11th in Belmont Oaks Invitational (gr. IT) in her stateside debut, then came in fourth in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (gr. IT) and wrapped her year up with a 12th-place finish in the Matriarch Stakes (gr. IT).



But she found herself on the front with jockey Julien Leparoux for the first time in the U.S. Saturday, setting fractions of :22.98 and :47.10 through a half-mile, and held off a late drive from her stablemates to win by a neck and hit the wire in 1:51.54.

"There was another speed horse (Quiet Kitten), the only one in the race that could go to the lead, and if that horse was going we could have sat second, but my filly broke very good and she was doing it very comfortably," Leparoux said. "She's a big filly—a grinder—so she never raised up.



"I was trying to win the race—that's it. I just saw in the last part of it that it was (Dacita), but I didn't know who was coming. I just felt like my filly didn't stop and the other one, I could feel they were running faster at the end."



Off as the 7-2 second choice (Dacita was the 3-5 favorite), Olorda paid $9.20, $3.40, and $2.60 across the board. Dacita brought $2.40 and $2.10, while Guapaza delivered $3.20 to show in her first U.S. start.

Al's Gal closed from sixth to finish fourth, followed by Quiet Kitten and Kitzys Rocket, to complete the order of finish.

Bred by Gestut Berwangerhof, Olorda now has a 3-0-2 record from nine starts, with earnings of $200,447.