NBC Sports announced Thursday that Chad Brown will saddle two contenders in Saturday’s GIII Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby, seeking back-to-back wins in the Kentucky Derby prep race.
‘TDN Rising Star’ Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie) headlines the field as the 8-5 morning-line favorite. The colt captured both the GI Hopeful Stakes and GI Champagne Stakes last year before suffering his first career defeat with a sixth-place finish in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar on November 1.
The Flanagan Racing colorbearer will make his sophomore debut wearing blinkers for the first time while facing six rivals in the 1 1/16-mile contest that offers 105 Kentucky Derby qualifying points (50-25-15-10-5). Regular rider Flavien Prat retains the mount.
“I was a little reluctant to make the change because he’s got those two Grade I wins without them,” Brown said, referring to the equipment addition. “He’s overcome a lot in his races and wasn’t helping himself with his early position at all. We tried him with blinkers recently and I did see him go a little bit better. He was definitely there for the rider the whole way, so we’re gonna try it.”
Brown captured last year’s Tampa Bay Derby with Domestic Product (Practical Joke), who went on to win the GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial and now stands at Coolmore.
Chancer McPatrick, from the first crop of McKinzie, was a $260,000 FTKJUL yearling who later commanded $725,000 at the OBSAPR breeze-up sale after working in :21 flat. His dam is the winning Bernardini mare Bernadreamy, daughter of GI Darley Alcibiades Stakes winner Dream Empress.
“He’s done what you’d like to see from two to three, he filled out a bit and looks pretty good,” Brown noted. “That said, he was always a pretty advanced horse mentally as a 2-year-old, which also contributed to him having so much early success.”
Brown will also debut fellow ‘Rising Star’ Hill Road (Quality Road) in the Tampa Bay Derby. The Amo Racing USA representative joins Brown’s barn after a closing third-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, where he finished 4 3/4 lengths behind champion Citizen Bull while posting the field’s best final furlong in :30.02.
“Him and Sierra Leone were really the only two horses that closed effectively all Breeders’ Cup weekend,” Brown said. “I was quite impressed with that given the track.”
Hill Road, a $350,000 KEESEP yearling, made two starts in Ireland for trainer Adrian Murray before the Breeders’ Cup, winning impressively on debut at Leopardstown before finishing seventh in the G1 Vincent O’Brien National Stakes at the Curragh.
Both Brown trainees will race with first-time blinkers, though the trainer acknowledged neither is fully cranked after extended layoffs. Chancer McPatrick has posted six workouts at Payson Park since having a “tiny flake” removed from a front ankle, most recently breezing four furlongs in :48.80 on March 1. Hill Road has recorded five works, including a four-furlong move in :49.20 on the same day.
“Neither of them have as many works that I would want given their 60-day breaks, which is more time off than you’d want to give a Derby horse in the off season,” Brown explained. “I want to give these horses a chance to make the Derby without going all in and potentially harming their development.”
He added, “I’d rather go into a race less than 100% fit like this, especially with horses that don’t run on the pace, and have the option to go to the Derby or not and still have a horse for the year than to really tighten the screws trying to go for points and make up for lost time.”
Brown also confirmed that promising sophomore Praetor (Into Mischief) will make his 3-year-old debut in a first-level optional claimer going a one-turn mile at Gulfstream Park Sunday. The $725,000 KEESEP graduate previously defeated GII Coolmore Fountain of Youth Stakes winner Sovereignty in a maiden race at Aqueduct.
Last year’s champion 3-year-old colt Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) remains on schedule for his 2024 debut in the GII Oaklawn Handicap on April 19.
