Louisville, Ky.
If not for a second-and-a-half, Chad Brown already might be a three-time winner in the Kentucky Derby.
In the past 11 years, Normandy Invasion, Good Magic and Zandon looked like they could be the one.
“I’ve had both the fortune and the misfortune,” Brown said Thursday at Churchill Downs. “The fortune of having the feeling that most trainers will never get when you turn for home in the Derby. Three times I thought I was going to win. Three times.”
Normandy Invasion led late in 2013. Good Magic made a late charge in 2018. Zandon was poised in 2022. In the end they lost by a collective 7 1/2 lengths. About a second-and-a-half.
Collectively in the Kentucky Derby, Brown is 0-for-6 in five runnings. Instead of the short stroll to the infield winner’s circle at Churchill Downs, he has had to trudge about a half-mile back to his barn on the backside.
“That long walk home afterwards, you do think each one of those times I walked back on the track thinking I’m not positive I’ll be back with a horse quite as good,” he said.
| Chad Brown 7: 0-1-1 | Year | Fin. | Odds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normandy Invasion | 2013 | 4th | 9.30 |
| My Man Sam | 2016 | 11th | 19.50 |
| Shagaf | 2016 | DNF | 56.00 |
| Practical Joke | 2017 | 5th | 27.80 |
| Good Magic | 2018 | 2nd | 9.70 |
| Highly Motivated | 2021 | 9th | 10.70 |
| Zandon | 2022 | 3rd | 6.10 |
Sierra Leone could be that good. In just four races, the big son of Gun Runner who cost $2.3 million already has earned back nearly a million bucks. The winner three weeks ago in the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes is likely to be the second betting choice next Saturday in Kentucky Derby 2024.
Brown also has Domestic Product, who has been training up to the race off a win two months ago in the Tampa Bay Derby (G3).
“It’s nice to have both of my Derby starters coming off victories, which is I think helpful,” Brown told reporters after Thursday morning training.
Where Domestic Product is more likely to be in the forward half of the field going up the backstretch, Sierra Leone will be biding his time toward the back of the pack before uncorking his trademark rally in the last quarter-mile. That is if traffic opens for him and jockey Tyler Gaffalione.
“A big horse like this with his running style, it does make the trip more challenging,” Brown said. “Ironically in this race, you’d probably prefer a handier horse that maybe has a little more speed and is not quite as big, actually because of the 20-horse field and the tight turns at Churchill. But that said, he has other qualities about him that you’d certainly look for.”
Brown did not even sound all that concerned about the annual guessing game of projecting the early Derby pace. Consider that Sierra Leone closed from ninth place in each of his last two wins. In the slop of the Risen Star (G2) at Fair Grounds, he chased early fractions of 24.32, 49.67 and 1:14.74. On a dry track at Keeneland in the Blue Grass, he successfully pursued splits of 23.15, 46.48 and 1:10.83.
Next stop: Kentucky Derby for SIERRA LEONE! ??
SIERRA LEONE takes the G1 Blue Grass S. at Keeneland! ?? @tyler_gaff pic.twitter.com/ai6eaHtBNM
— TwinSpires Racing ?? (@TwinSpires) April 6, 2024
As long as he breaks cleanly. That could be preceded by the phrase as long as he does not throw a tantrum at the gate. Sierra Leone sure did that this month at Keeneland, acting more like a 3-year-old human than a 3-year-old colt. It took nearly three minutes to load him.
Brown has made gate schooling a priority since the sometimes petulant colt arrived Sunday at Churchill Downs.
“Sierra Leone has visited the gate at Churchill the last two days, and starter Scott Jordan, who I know very well, worked with him quite a bit the first day,” Brown said in a media teleconference Thursday. “By the end of the session (Jordan) was very pleased with him. I brought him right back again (Thursday) morning and just walked him in and out a few times.”
Unknown is how the colt primarily owned by Peter Brant and the Coolmore lads from Ireland will react in the presence of 150,000 fans next weekend. The same goes for Domestic Product, Seth Klarman’s homebred colt who had two bullet workouts in his last four breezes before he was shipped north from Florida.
“I like the fact this horse is fresh,” Brown said. “That he hasn’t had a race right on top of this one. He’s a horse that needed a little bit of time to recover from (the Tampa Bay Derby) to really move forward. He’s working better than ever, and he is definitely in the picture in this race the way he’s training.”
DOMESTIC PRODUCT wins the Tampa Bay Derby and earns 50 points on the Road to the #KyDerby! ?? pic.twitter.com/LuImW1uSD5
— Kentucky Derby (@KentuckyDerby) March 10, 2024
“His form is a little spotty, because he caught a muddy track in the Remsen, which he did not like,” Brown said. “In his debut at Saratoga, we quite liked the horse, and he caught some kickback sprinting. A sprint move just wasn’t for him. Outside of those two races, the horse has run well, and he’s always worked well. He’s always been highly rated with the top three dirt colts of the crop. Since August we identified Domestic Product as one of the ones for next spring.”
Brown knows all too well how other factors play into the Derby. With Normandy Invasion it was a sloppy track. With Good Magic it was being born the same year as newly minted Hall of Famer Justify. With Zandon it was a suicidal early pace that really benefited 80-1 long shot Rich Strike.
The common denominator, Brown said, was what happened once those 3-year-olds faced that extra furlong they never raced before. It is no different this year.
“There’s always distance questions with a majority of the field, because it’s May, and none of them have been a mile-and-a-quarter,” he said. “Everybody’s guessing.”
Being a big, deep closer, though, Sierra Leone looks built for next weekend’s challenge.
“It’d be hard to believe that this horse doesn’t want a mile-and-a-quarter,” Brown said. “At least he’s got that going for him.”
If either Sierra Leone or Domestic Product is going to end his Derby drought, the four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer said it will come down to less than a half-minute next Saturday evening.
“It’s one thing to have a horse get to the Derby, but can you get to the quarter pole in the Derby?” Brown said. “That’s a whole different group, because by the quarter pole, most of them can’t win, and that’s a hard spot to get to.”
