Perhaps the fifth time will be the charm for trainer Chad Brown.

Brown came into the Oct. 5 Champagne Stakes at Aqueduct with four victories in New York’s famed 2-year-old stakes and a quartet of Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series spots in the FanDuel Breeders' Cup Juvenile presented by TAA associated with those victories.

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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 McKinzie colt who is now 3-for-3 with a win in the Hopeful Stakes also on his résumé.

Champagne winner Chancer McPatrick. (Eclipse Sportswire)

“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 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. R and H Stable’s Mo Plex  was another 4 3/4 lengths back in third.

Scottish Lassie Gives Trainer Abreu First Graded Winner

Scottish Lassie took over as the field turned for home and powered away impressively to win the $400,000, Grade 1 Frizette Stakes by nine lengths Oct. 5 at Aqueduct, giving trainer Jorge R. Abreu his first career graded victory.

Scottish Lassie had finished third in her Sept. 1 debut at Saratoga. Sent off at 6.50-1 as a maiden in the one-mile Frizette, she was bumped at the start, then raced in third early, stalking the pace set by Sorority Stakes winner Social Fortress, who went through quarter-mile splits of :22.81, :46.20, and 1:11.73.

Runaway Frizette Stakes winner Scottish Lassie. (Coglianese photos/Janet Napolitano)

Ridden by Jose Lezcano, Scottish Lassie hit the front with about a quarter-mile to go. Under a hand ride, she widened her lead progressively through the lane and crossed the finish line in 1:36.73.

“I felt comfortable turning for home when Jose looked back to his inside and he knew nobody was coming. I felt very comfortable after that, and she just kept on opening up,” said Abreu, who co-owns Scottish Lassie with Sportsmen Stable, Parkland Thoroughbreds, Photos Finish, and Corms Racing Stable.

Snowyte finished second, and it was another 6 1/2 lengths back to Social Fortress in third.

The win gave first-crop sire McKinzie his second grade 1 winner, joining Chancer McPatrick, winner of the Sept. 2 Hopeful Stakes and the Champagne Stakes one race after the Frizette Saturday.

Abreu saddled his first starter in 2016 and has hit the board in two Breeders’ Cup races. He trained Stellar Agent to a third-place finish in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and then Jody’s Pride  ran second for him, beaten just a neck, in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Barring setback, Abreu will have a chance to better last year’s finish, as the Frizette was a Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series race, providing the winning connections with entry fees, travel expenses, and a guaranteed spot in the gate for the $2 million NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Nov. 1 at Del Mar.

“I had really high expectations of this filly since day one,” Abreu said. “I expected her to run a good race today because Jose [Lezcano] was breezing her and she was breezing very good all along. But I didn’t know she was going to win by this margin.

“I was expecting a good race today. I know people didn’t believe — not in her, in me — because this is the first time I’ve ever won a graded stakes. You need the quality to win those kinds of races, and I thought I had the horse.”—Pete Denk

Carson’s Run Rallies From Last to First in Jockey Club Derby

Carson’s Run winning Jockey Club Derby. (Adam Coglianese/NYRA)

West Point Thoroughbreds and Steven Bouchey’s Carson’s Run did not compete in all three legs of the New York Racing Association’s series of turf races for 3-year-old males, skipping the first leg of the series, the July 6 Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes. But he made his presence felt in the final two races of the series.

He won the Aug. 11 Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes, the middle leg, and Oct. 5, took the series finale in rallying from last to capture the $500,000 Jockey Club Derby Invitational Stakes at Aqueduct.

Dylan Davis, who piloted Carson’s Run in the Saratoga Derby, was again in the irons Saturday, and the chestnut 3-year-old Cupid colt responded for him just as he did nearly two months earlier. Carson’s Run exploded down the stretch of Saturday’s 1 3/8-mile turf race to take over in midstretch and maintained a safe advantage to defeat stablemate Deterministic by three-quarters of a length. The latter raced in traffic and came up the fence to grab second

El Rezeen was a close third.

Christophe Clement trains the top two finishers.

“Both of them progressed through the year. I wasn’t sure if they would both stay the mile and three-eighths, but the way they ran there is no issue with the distance,” Clement said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun next year.”

If either of Clement’s duo races again in 2024, it will most likely come in the Nov. 30 Hollywood Derby for 3-year-olds at Del Mar, the trainer said. They could alternatively be freshened and pointed toward races in 2025.—Byron King