Brown savoring biggest day of training career
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Trainer and Mechanicville native Chad Brown was in excellent spirits Sunday morning, the day after enjoying the biggest day of his training career.
At 5: 15 p. m. Saturday, Brown was at Saratoga to watch as his Big Blue Kitten rallied from 12th and last place to win the Grade 1, $ 600,000 Sword Dancer Invitational, a length ahead of Twilight Eclipse. Less than two hours later, sitting in front of the TV in his barn office, Brown and his staff watched Real Solution duel with The Apache in the stretch and then get put up to first by disqualification to win the Grade 1 Arlington Million.
Two Grade 1s in the same day was a first for Brown, and they came in two of the most important grass races in the country.
“I’ll tell you, it was incredible,” Brown said. “Like I said, so much planning goes into these races. They’re on a calendar, and you work backwards a long way out, often, and with horses, the bestlaid plans rarely work out. But this time, we pointed to those two races and hit them both. It’s a tremendous feeling.”
Brown said he had been fielding congratulations throughout the night and into the morning, in person and via text message. Some people, however, didn’t realize he had won the Million.
“I had a couple ( texts) late, to be honest with you, that said, ‘Great win in the Sword Dancer. I’m sorry; your horse ran great in the Million. Good job,’” Brown said. “I had an owner today tell me, came up to me just now, one of my clients, and he said, ‘ Hey, great win yesterday, but in the Million, tough beat.’ Some people just walked away.”