Trainer Chad Brown is sizzling and winning in bunches at Saratoga and his future is extremely bright. He grew up in northern New York and last week he celebrated his 1,000th training success. Brown is the leading conditioner at Saratoga currently. He has won with 34 of his 132 starters for a 26% clip and 59% of his runners have been in the money.
The milestone winner was Mr. Maybe, but there are no doubts as to what Chad Brown will do next. He will just continue to win races with some of the best bred horses in the country.
On Travers Day last Saturday Brown saddled the winner of the $1 million Sword Dancer, Flintshire, who is arguably the best grass horse in the world. The humble thing about Chad Brown is that he didn’t get this success on his own and he is the first to admit he learned from some legends.
He got his start in the game working for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey and then moved on as an assistant to the late great Bobby Frankel. Frankel was one of the most successful and respected conditioners of all time. He was the outstanding trainer in the country 5 times and Chad Brown learned his lessons well. During his time with Hall of Famer Frankel, Brown worked with some superstars. He helped in the training of Ghostzapper, Ginger Punch, Intercontinental, Empire Maker and Medaglia D’Oro.
For bettors, there are obviously many ways to attack the runners that are trained by Chad Brown. He is very good when he puts his horses on the grass for the first time. In the last 5 years he has won with 21% of his first-time turf runners.
When he switches things up and goes from dirt to turf his runners win at 23% and he’s even better going from turf to dirt as he pops at 32%. One of the biggest class drops in horse racing is when a horse goes from a Maiden Special Weight race to a maiden claimer. Brown pops with 33% of runners in that category.
Trainers use blinkers, or blinders for different reasons. Blinkers are a piece of equipment that prevents horses seeing to the rear and sometimes to the side. When blinkers are added, a horse can focus more intently and keep his mind of business. When the blinkers are taken off, horses can relax a bit and sometimes become even more competitive.
In the last 5 years Brown has won with 24% of his first-time blinkers runners and 17% with first-time blinkers off runners.
Because of the high quality of his stable Brown doesn’t claim a lot of horses but when he has he has won at 24% with first off the claim runners. Again, he doesn’t deal with a lot of claiming horses but in the last 3 years he has had 3 claimers that jumped in class at least 50% in claiming price. Two of those runners won and the other ran 2nd beaten just a half-length.
Since Brown is based on the East Coast, he has a number of different venues at his disposal and when he ships a horse in to a new track bettors need to pay attention. He has hit with 26% of his shippers in the last 5 years.
Brown doesn’t race his runners into submission as he has had 3 horses in the last 5 years race back within a week. One of those runners won and the other 2 ran second.
Brown has a penchant for keeping horses going good once they are thriving. He has won with 29% of his last out winners and 44% with runners that were in the money last time.
Lasix, in reference to horses, is a diuretic intended only to prevent pulmonary bleeding during extreme exercise. More than 90% of thoroughbreds in the U.S. are given the drug within hours of racing and Chad Brown wins with 25% of his second time Lasix runners.
They say patience is a virtue and Chad Brown has that trait in spades. He lets the horses tell him when they are ready and he gives them time to mature. In the last 5 years, he has won with 27% of his runners that return after being away for 180 days or more.
Switching distance is a ploy that allows trainers to tinker with their horses and keep them interested. Brown is 27% in the last 5 years with horses going from a sprint to a route but even better the other way. He is 35% when he cuts back and runs his horses sprinting after going a route of ground.
Lastly, the key to betting on runners trained by Chad Brown is to make sure they are fit and come into the race with a few works between races. Good luck turning Brown’s horses into green.
