Bricks and Mortar Could Build on 2019 in Turf Classic

While 3-year-olds will race for their share of a $3 million purse in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) May 4 at Churchill Downs, one race before the classic a horse who already has banked more than $2.8 million this season will start in the Old Forester Turf Classic Stakes (G1T) on the Churchill turf.

That horse off to the fast seasonal start is Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence's Bricks and Mortar, who has won three straight races, including a victory in the inaugural Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Stakes (G1), where the 5-year-old son of Giant's Causeway secured $2,656,250 in purse earnings. Bricks and Mortar followed that January victory with a March 23 score in the $300,000 Muniz Memorial Handicap (G2T) on the turf at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.

Patience has paid off for Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown and the connections. Bricks and Mortar was sidelined for 15 months after a 2017 season in which he posted a clear victory over other 3-year-olds in the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes (G2T) at Saratoga Race Course. 

The Brown trainee was able to return in December, his lone start as a 4-year-old, and he rallied from sixth to win an allowance race at Gulfstream Park. The timing of that return left him well-positioned for the Pegasus Turf, where he again rallied from sixth—thriving on the yielding turf as he delivered a 2 1/2-length score.

With Churchill Downs doubling the purse of the Turf Classic this season to $1 million, Bricks and Mortar will have an opportunity to add to a most impressive, and lucrative, 2019 start. 

"He missed most of the year last year and we got him back in the allowance race at the end of the year and he ran so well," Brown said. "We always thought a lot of the horse—his race record speaks for itself. We were lucky enough to get him in the allowance race and get him into the Pegasus, and he ran super."

Brown said Bricks and Mortar returned well off the Pegasus to score at Fair Grounds and has been training well for Saturday's 1 1/8-mile test. Brown is still keeping a close eye on the distances where Bricks and Mortar may be best. He could again face less than firm turf Saturday, which hasn't been a problem.

"I think he's mile-and-an-eighth to a mile-and-a-quarter horse," Brown said. "He showed in the Pegasus that he can handle some off turf as well as some softer turf."

Bricks and Mortar will face some familiar rivals in the expected field of 14 Saturday as the second- and third-place finishers from the Muniz, Markitoff and Synchrony, are entered. Sent off at odds of 60-1, Three Diamonds Farm's Markitoff opened a clear lead early in the Muniz then proved game as he dueled in the stretch with Bricks and Mortar before being edged by a nose. 

Multiple graded stakes winner Synchrony will try to improve on his third-place finish in last year's Turf Classic. The Pin Oak Stable homebred is trained by Michael Stidham.

Michael and Jules Iavarone, Jerry McClanahan, Christopher Dunn, Ritchie Robershaw, Mark Taylor, and Richard Baltas' Next Shares opened the season with a seventh-place finish in the Pegasus Turf and followed with an off-the-board finish in the Frank E. Kilroe Mile Stakes (G1T). The connections of the 6-year-old son of Archarcharch hope he can return to the form that saw him win last year's Shadwell Turf Mile Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland.

Sullimar Stable's Clyde's Image enters off a runner-up finish in the April 12 Maker's 46 Mile Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland, the grade 1 debut for the son of Get Stormy .

Entries: Old Forester Turf Classic S. (G1T)

Churchill Downs, Saturday, May 04, 2019, Race 11

• Grade IT
• 1 1/8m
• Turf
• $1,000,000
• 4 yo's & up
• 5:25 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Qurbaan (KY)	Mike E. Smith	120	Kiaran P. McLaughlin	8/1
2	2Raging Bull (FR)	Joel Rosario	124	Chad C. Brown	5/1
3	3Multiplier (KY)	Flavien Prat	118	William I. Mott	20/1
4	4Sabador (FR)	James Graham	118	Conor Murphy	20/1
5	5Markitoff (KY)	Manuel Franco	118	Michael J. Maker	10/1
6	6Clyde's Image (KY)	Luis Saez	118	Thomas M. Bush	15/1
7	7Prime Attraction (KY)	Tyler Baze	118	James M. Cassidy	10/1
8	8Breaking the Rules (KY)	Jose L. Ortiz	118	Claude R. McGaughey III	15/1
9	9Synchrony (KY)	John R. Velazquez	120	Michael Stidham	8/1
10	10Ticonderoga (KY)	Javier Castellano	118	Chad C. Brown	8/1
11	11March to the Arch (FL)	Tyler Gaffalione	118	Mark E. Casse	20/1
12	12Bricks and Mortar (KY)	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	124	Chad C. Brown	5/2
13	13Next Shares (KY)	Drayden Van Dyke	122	Richard Baltas	12/1