Perhaps the fifth time will be the charm for trainer Chad Brown.
Brown came into the Oct. 5 Champagne Stakes (G1) at Aqueduct Racetrack with four victories in New York's famed 2-year-old stakes and a quartet of Breeders' Cup Challenge Series spots in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) associated with those victories.
Yet when Brown popped the cork on the Champagne for a fifth time with Flanagan Racing's unbeaten Chancer McPatrick, it came with a seemingly strange request for a change in his luck at the World Championships.
You see, Brown's lone win in the Juvenile came in 2017 when Good Magic won the grade 1 stakes as a maiden who was second in the Champagne.
His four Champagne winners either lost or failed to make it to the race.
"Ironically the only time I've won the Juvenile is when I got beat in the Champagne," Brown said. "This is our fifth Champagne win and the first four did not win the Juvenile, so hopefully this is the year I can actually win the Juvenile with a Champagne winner."
Anything can happen in the Nov. 1 Juvenile at Del Mar—where Good Magic won the Juvenile—but at the moment it certainly appears Brown has one of the horses to beat at the World Championships in a highly talented and advanced son of McKinzie (who also sired Frizette Stakes (G1) winner Scottish Lassie in the previous race on the card) who is now 3-for-3 with a win in the Hopeful Stakes (G1) also on his résumé.
"I've gone to the (Juvenile) before with horses who have won (the Hopeful and Champagne) but this horse seems to be in a different category. With his advanced mental development and his laid-back demeanor, it looks like he's dying for more ground. I am not sure if I had that with the other horses this early. I think he's a unique horse for this particular race," Brown said.
Sent off as a heavy 1-2 favorite ($3.10) in the one-turn mile $500,000 Champagne, Chancer McPatrick was last in the field of nine on the backstretch before rallying five wide on the turn, collaring runner-up Tip Top Thomas leaving the eighth pole, and drawing clear by 2 3/4 lengths.
"When I made that move outside, he kind of made a move then he switched off again and then regrouped and made another run. It's nice to see that he has a few runs into him. That's a good sign," jockey Flavien Prat said.
Chancer McPatrick covered the mile in 1:36.51 under Prat while racing in a manner that bodes well for his handling of two turns in the 1 1/16-mile Juvenile.
"He runs his race like he's a year older than he is. He runs like an experienced 3-year-old. He has a long, strong run," Brown said about the colt bred by Rigney Racing. "The way he finished up and the way he relaxes, I don't see two turns being a problem."
James Bakke and Gerald Isbister's Tip Top Thomas was a game second in his second career start. A determined maiden winner at Saratoga Race Course, he was second early through fast fractions of :22.47 and :45.59 behind 54-1 shot J J Zo Zo, then grabbed the lead approaching the quarter pole and battled gamely to the wire,
'"I thought he ran super. It was his second time out with pretty solid fractions and he kept trying to the wire and galloped out well. It was a good effort," trainer Todd Pletcher said.
Pletcher said he would see how Tip Top Thomas comes out of the race before deciding on whether the son of Volatile will head to the Breeders' Cup.
R and H Stable's Mo Plex was another 4 3/4 lengths back in third. Trainer Jeremiah Englehart said he was open to running in the Juvenile and would discuss it with the owners before making a final decision about whether the New York-bred son of Complexity would head to the Breeders' Cup.
The top finishers also received Kentucky Derby (G1) points for their performances. As part of the Road to the Kentucky Derby, the Champagne awarded points on a 10-5-3-2-1 scale to the top five finishers.
The field was reduced to nine with the scratch of Uncaged, who Pletcher said was not quite right the day before the race and would target the Nov. 2 Nashua Stakes at Aqueduct.
Aside from giving Gainesway stallion McKinzie a coveted grade 1 double, Chancer McPatrick is the third of four foals from the Bernardini mare Bernadreamyand her first stakes winner. She also has a yearling Liam's Map colt.
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