SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — You knew this wouldn't last much longer.
Chad Brown's Saratoga barn has too much young talent inside of it. Eventually, the trainer was going to find his way to the winner's circle with one of his juvenile runners. That day was Saturday when Brown's Capital Partner (GB) (Kingman {GB}) unleashed a furious closing kick to win the second race at the Spa, a $100,000 maiden special weight for 2-yeasr-olds.
With jockey Flavien Prat doing the steering, Capital Partner flew down the stretch in the 1 1/16-mile race on the Inner Turf Course and won by a half-length as the 9-5 favorite.
Brown, who has been the leading trainer at Saratoga seven times, including the last four summers (he shared the title with Linda Rice in 2023), had started six 2-year-olds in $100,000 maiden special weights at Saratoga prior to Saturday. He had two seconds and a third.
Then, Capital Partner got him on the board.
“We have had some other horses that have really run well,” Brown said of his youngsters. “We have had really good performances that were not quite good enough first time to get there.”
For a while, it looked like Capital Partner, owned by Seth Klarman's Klaravich Stables, might be one of them. The son of Kingman would have no part of that as he and Prat began to roll in upper stretch and then gobbled up the turf with gigantic strides.
He passed British Invasion (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) in the shadow of the wire and got the narrow score in his first career start.
Seth Klarman and trainer Chad Brown in the winner's enclosure | Tod Marks
“The horse needed a real kick, and he got it,” Klarman said. “Another Kingman! They have been great for us. Chad though the horse was training really well. He needed some experience, and he got it today.”
Last year, when Brown won the training title with 45 wins, 10 of them came with his 2-year-olds in 37 starts. According to Equibase, Brown won five of 17 2-year-old starts on grass last year.
“We had high expectations for him, but you never know the first time out at Saratoga,” Brown said. “Dirt, turf, long, short–everyone brings their best and there are a lot of great trainers here and well-bred horses.”
Brown and bloodstock agent Mike Ryan picked Capital Partner out at the 2024 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. He went for $484,088. Brown said he and Ryan have been attending the sale in England every year.
“Mike does a fantastic job of shortlisting the horses and zeroing in on the ones he wants,” Brown said. “Often times, I am in agreement. He is great at what he does, and we have a great partnership.”
Before coming to Brown's barn, Capital Partner was at Stonestreet Training Center in Ocala, Fla with farm trainer Ian Brennan. Brown said he went to visit his young horses there in March and got rave reviews from Brennan when it came to Capital Partner.
“I have to give a lot of credit to Stonestreet and Ian Brennan,” Brown said. “He was very high on this horse. He rated him at the top of the male turf horses that I had there, and he was right. We have done a lot of work together through the years. He knows how to grade them based on previous horse that have gone through the program. (Capital Partner) got straight As.”
Capital Partner was timed in 1:44.55 and paid $5.90, $3.50 and $2.60. Brown said he was not sure what might be next for his first 2-year-old winner of the meet.
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