Trainer Chad Brown Finally Lands His Knockout

In 2014, after enjoying the second-best day by a trainer in the history of the Breeders’ Cup, Chad Brown felt like he had a strong chance to gain his first Eclipse Award. But the victories by Dayatthespa, Bobby's Kitten  , and Lady Eli didn’t get Brown over the hump. Todd Pletcher, Brown’s rival for East Coast superiority, instead collected his seventh Eclipse, having outpaced Brown in earnings and victories for the season. That result left Brown dejected as he talked to a reporter early the following year.

“It’s like a heavyweight championship fight,” the reporter told him. “The challenger can’t win on points. He has to go for a knockout.”

Brown brightened up momentarily, enjoying the metaphor. Just seven years into his training career at that point, he’d made steep progress in putting together a stable of top-flight owners and choice horses, having come a long way from 2008 when he left his position as an assistant for Bobby Frankel and hung out his shingle with a couple dozen claiming horses munching hay in his shedrow.

Brown is ambitious and he’s intense. He’s not going to win any Mr. Congeniality contests because he puts the oversight of his horses above shooting the breeze and socializing. He is appreciative of his help, but demanding of them. He’s got a degree from Cornell and with it the requisite smarts that is attractive to many owners. If you catch him at the right time, he can be engaging and funny. He likes to tell stories from his time with the legendary Frankel, and he will open up if you’ve earned his trust.

But he also wanted that recognition, that hardware that proves that you’ve made it all the way.

In 2015 it wouldn’t have mattered if Brown had stood on his crew cut and spit nickels into the grandstand. A guy named Baffert pulled off the Triple Crown, rumored to be a pretty rare accomplishment, and nobody else was going to win the trainer’s Eclipse for that year. So Brown took two more Breeders’ Cup victories (Stephanie's Kitten and Wavell Avenue) back to New York and reloaded.

And in 2016 he came out firing. Sure, there were the Belmont Park meet titles, but he’d done that before. The big move came at prestigious Saratoga Race Course, where Brown had grown up going to the races with his father. He jumped out to an early lead and, matching Pletcher this time starter-for-starter, never relinquished his advantage.

New Money Honey won for Brown on the first day of the 2016 Breeders’ Cup. Then, oddly enough, he went cold, getting seconds with Flintshire  , Lady Eli, and Wavell Avenue. The final bell sounded with Baffert landing solidly in the Classic (G1) with Arrogate.

For the year Brown topped all trainers with earnings of $23.1 million, and won more grade 1s than any of them. Following in Frankel’s footsteps, he landed Juddmonte Farms as a client and conditioned Flintshire to a turf championship while also scoring grade 1s on dirt with the likes of Connect and Practical Joke.

This time, the referee raised Brown’s arm. He’d scored the knockout.