Led by Chancer McPatrick, Trio of Talented 3yos Returning for Chad Brown This Weekend

[Wandering Eyes]

Chad Brown will have a pair of chancers, err, chances, to repeat in Saturday's GIII Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby.

'TDN Rising Star' Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie), a sensational, come-from-behind winner of last year's GI Hopeful Stakes and GI Champagne Stakes, will kick off his sophomore campaign in the 1 1/16-mile Tampa Bay Downs centerpiece, good for 105 points (50-25-15-10-5) on the road to the GI Kentucky Derby.

The Flanagan Racing colorbearer suffered his first career defeat finishing a disappointing sixth at a well-backed 2-1 while making his two-turn debut in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Del Mar Nov. 1. He will race with first-time blinkers while facing six rivals this weekend. Regular rider Flavien Prat will be aboard the 8-5 morning-line favorite.

“I was a little reluctant to make the change because he's got those two Grade I wins without them,” said Brown, who won last year's Tampa Bay Derby with subsequent GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial winner and first-season Coolmore stallion Domestic Product (Practical Joke).

“He's overcome a lot in his races and wasn't helping himself with his early position at all. He's been running in spots and has enough raw ability and heart to get up there in time. I kept an open mind this off season about any improvements I could make and 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.”

Hailing from the first crop of McKinzie, Chancer McPatrick, a $260,000 FTKJUL yearling turned $725,000 OBSAPR breezer (:21), is out of the winning Bernardini mare Bernadreamy, a daughter of GI Darley Alcibiades Stakes heroine and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies runner-up Dream Empress (Bernstein).

“He's done what you'd like to see from two to three, he filled out a bit and looks pretty good,” Brown said. “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. He always trained like an older horse.”

Brown will also get fellow 'Rising Star' Hill Road (Quality Road)'s 3-year-old season underway in the Tampa Bay Derby. The Amo Racing USA representative was transferred to Brown after rallying smartly for a longshot third over a surface playing quite kindly to speed in the Juvenile. He finished up in a field-best :30.02 that day, reporting home 4 3/4 lengths adrift of the wire-to-wire winner, champion Citizen Bull (Into Mischief).

“Him and Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) were really the only two horses that closed effectively all (Breeders' Cup) weekend,” said Brown, who, of course, saddled the latter to a powerful, off-the-pace win in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic as well as a near miss earlier in the year in the Kentucky Derby. “I was quite impressed with that given the track.”

Hill Road | Horsephotos

Hill Road, a $350,000 KEESEP yearling produced by a stakes-placed, Lemon Drop Kid half-sister to MGISW and promising young sire City of Light (Quality Road), made two prior starts for conditioner Adrian Murray on grass in Ireland, winning impressively on debut at Leopardstown and finishing seventh in the G1 Vincent O'Brien National Stakes at the Curragh.

Drawn one to the outside of Chancer McPatrick in post three, Hill Road will also race with first-time blinkers in the Tampa Bay Derby.

“(Hill Road) needed some time off as well after the Breeders' Cup,” Brown said. “He's a couple of weeks behind Chancer McPatrick as far as when I could get him on a work schedule, so he's not as fit. I elected to run him in here, because looking at the schedule, I'm not confident I'm gonna have the right kind of allowance or stakes race to serve as a good bridge. Whether he gets to the Derby or a different Triple Crown race, there needs to be some sort of bridge of development for me.”

Chancer McPatrick has posted six workouts at Payson Park base since having a “tiny flake” removed from a front ankle, including a four-furlong breeze in :48.80 (4/68) Mar. 1. Hill Road has breezed five times for Brown, most recently covering four furlongs in :49.20 (10/68) Mar. 1.

“Him and Chancer, 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 said. “But I want to give these horses a chance to make the Derby without going all in and potentially harming their development. This race at Tampa is a bit of a happy medium. It gives you enough time on paper to make the Derby and still have a chance for them to run really well in the race.”

Brown 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. If you fail doing that, not only do you lose the Derby, you lose the year.”

Chad Brown | Sarah Andrew

The very promising Praetor (Into Mischief), meanwhile, will also make his 3-year-old bow for Brown in a first-level optional claimer going a one-turn mile at Gulfstream Park Sunday. Campaigned in partnership by William H. Lawrence, CHP Racing and Gainesway Stable, the $725,000 KEESEP graduate was featured in these pages following a sneaky good debut third after an eventful start sprinting in the Saratoga mud, then held on to graduate by a neck over Sovereignty (Into Mischief)–yes, the same Sovereignty that everyone is still talking about after his head-turning win in last Saturday's GII Coolmore Fountain of Youth Stakes–going a one-turn mile at Aqueduct.

“He's another one, he looked like a very promising Derby prospect and I had to stop on him (last year),” Brown said. “No surgery, but he had an issue and wasn't right. He did beat Sovereignty and had the better of him with the way the track was playing at Aqueduct that day and being loose on the lead. To Sovereignty's credit, he was against everything and it was a close race. It's nice to see that he's coming out of a race with one of the favorites for the Derby right now. I think it's a good spot to start back at a one-turn mile, then go from there to see if he can get around two turns.”

Brown added that last year's previously mentioned champion 3-year-old colt Sierra Leone remains on target to return in the GII Oaklawn Handicap Apr. 19.

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