SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The last time the Kentucky Derby runner-up won the Belmont Stakes was in 2003 when Empire Maker denied Funny Cide the Triple Crown. Bobby Frankel trained Empire Maker. A then 24-year-old Chad Brown worked for Frankel as an assistant.
“Way down on the totem pole as far as responsibility,” said Brown, who was not at Belmont Park that soggy June day.
Brown, now 45, has climbed to the top of his profession since going out on his own in 2007. He frequently employs lessons learned from Frankel, whose picture adorns the wall of his Belmont Park office.
Saturday, in the 156th running of the Belmont Stakes, Brown hopes to mimic his mentor when he sends Kentucky Derby runner-up Sierra Leone out against Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan and Preakness winner Seize the Grey in the first-ever Belmont Stakes to be run in Saratoga.
Empire Maker’s second to Funny Cide was the closest Frankel came to winning the Kentucky Derby from eight starters in six runnings of the race. Sierra Leone’s nose loss to Mystik Dan in Louisville five weeks ago was the closest Brown has come to winning the Derby, a race in which he has started eight horses in seven runnings.
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“I’m hoping for the same result as my mentor had; to be able to win the Belmont and have a little bit of a consolation prize,” Brown said. “He would have really liked to have won the Derby, I know that for sure having spoken to him about that, but he was quite happy to win the Belmont.”
The 2003 Belmont is certainly remembered by racing fans in upstate New York. Funny Cide was the hometown horse, bred just a few miles up the road and owned by a group with local ties. This year’s Belmont will certainly be remembered by fans in this region for its historical significance as the first to be run at this historic venue.
With Belmont Park undergoing a complete renovation, the Belmont Stakes this year and next will be held at Saratoga. The smaller dimensions of this track prompted management to shorten the distance to 1 1/4 miles – perhaps altering the race’s nickname to “The Quiz of the Champion.”
It could be argued the shorter distance makes for a better race. With Mystik Dan and Seize the Grey in the field, this marks the first time since 2013 that the separate winners of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness meet in the Belmont.
Sierra Leone, like Empire Maker, skipped the Preakness after running in the Derby. Sierra Leone, who was the second choice in the Derby, lugged in and bumped with Forever Young and fell a nose short of Mystik Dan at the wire, while finishing a nose in front of Forever Young.
Sierra Leone has lugged in before in his races. For the Belmont, Brown is changing bits, moving to what is known as a Houghton or cage bit, one designed to give the jockey more steering control.
“In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a drastic adjustment,” Brown said. “It’s like an entry-level straight bit. It doesn’t have a severe aspect to it.”
Brown also is changing riders. Flavien Prat replaces Tyler Gaffalione, who earlier this year had ridden Sierra Leone to victories in the Risen Star at Fair Grounds and the Blue Grass at Keeneland. Brown felt Gaffalione needed to have his stick in his left hand sooner than he did in the Derby, which might have enabled him to prevent Sierra Leone from drifting in.
Sierra Leone is a late-runner who is best served by a strong early pace. There is potential for that in the Belmont.
Seize the Grey won the Preakness in front-running fashion under Jaime Torres and breaks from the rail Saturday. Dornoch’s speed was effective in last year’s Remsen – where he nosed out Sierra Leone – and this year’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth. That speed was absent in losses in the Blue Grass and Kentucky Derby, the latter where he had trouble from the rail.
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Mystik Dan, who came from just off the pace in the Derby, has speed as well and breaks from post 3. Trainer Kenny McPeek said it’s jockey Brian Hernandez Jr.’s job to work out the riding tactics. McPeek does feel his horse has stood up well for what will be his third race in five weeks. He will be the only horse to run in all three legs of the Triple Crown.
“He’s holding steady, ate up again last night,” McPeek said Thursday. “What’s the old saying, ‘To be the best you got to beat the best?’ I’d rather run Saturday than skip it and go to Monmouth and back” for the July 20 Haskell.
Seize the Grey did not run in all three legs of the Triple Crown, but his victory in the Pat Day Mile came on the Derby undercard. Two weeks later, he pulled a gate-to-wire theft of the Preakness under Jaime Torres. Though Seize the Grey has the rail, his 88-year-old Hall of Fame trainer, D. Wayne Lukas, said he doesn’t need the lead.
“We’re not one-dimensional, so I feel like we can deal that and handle it,” said Lukas, who has won the Belmont four times. “We’ll play the break and see what the other nine do. If we send him, we’ll probably be the speed, but we don’t have to.”
Mindframe, the unbeaten but untested colt, could be forward breaking from post 10 under Irad Ortiz Jr. Mindframe, trained by four-time Belmont Stakes winner Todd Pletcher, has been too fast for his previous foes, but he has yet to meet this quality of competition.
“I think from a talent perspective he has enough talent to compete with this field, but he doesn’t have the foundation and experience that most of the ones in here do,” Pletcher said.
Pletcher also sends out Antiquarian and Protective in this spot. Antiquarian is coming off a victory in the Grade 3 Peter Pan, a race in which he stalked the pace three wide and wore down The Wine Steward to win by three-quarters of a length. Pletcher’s four previous Belmont wins have come with horses who ran in either the Kentucky Derby or Kentucky Oaks.
“The Peter Pan was a breakthrough, now we need another step forward, which I think the mile and a quarter will give him a chance to do,” Pletcher said. “He’s had a good month since the Peter Pan, seems like he’s sharp. His energy level is good, all the things you’d hope for.”
Protective is a maiden who has finished third in both the Wood Memorial and Peter Pan.
“The one thing I think he has going for him is he’ll appreciate the mile and a quarter,” Pletcher said. “He’s going to drop back and make a run. If things get a little hot up front that could help him out.”
Resilience won the Wood Memorial and finished sixth in the Kentucky Derby. Trainer Bill Mott felt his horse was in position at the top of the stretch to win the Kentucky Derby, but could not see out the 1 1/4 miles. Mott, who won the Belmont in 2010 with Drosselmeyer, wants to give his horse another try at the distance. His workout here Sunday was as good, if not better, than any of the other runners in this field.
“I think we feel like he deserves another chance and we need to see it one more time,” Mott said.
Honor Marie, second in the Louisiana Derby, finished eighth in the Kentucky Derby after getting shuffled back to last. Trainer Whit Beckman hopes for a cleaner trip Saturday and just wants to see his horse in front of Sierra Leone turning for home. He will have a new rider in Florent Geroux.
“Regardless of what the pace is, I just want to let him run a little more into the first turn than pretty much all of his previous races,” Beckman said. “We know he’s going to come from behind just as long as he can cut out a clear path.”
The Wine Steward, who won the Funny Cide Stakes for New York-breds here last summer, has acquitted himself well in open company, finishing second in three graded stakes, including the Peter Pan. Manny Franco rides The Wine Steward for Mike Maker.
The Belmont goes as race 12 on a 14-race card that includes eight other stakes – four of which are Grade 1s. First post is 10:45 a.m., and the Belmont is slated for 6:41 p.m. and will be broadcast nationally on Fox from 4-7 p.m. Eastern.
The weather forecast can be best described as an uncertain. From Thursday through Saturday, rain was in the forecast, with the National Weather Service calling for a 50 percent chance on Saturday.
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