The field for the $3 million Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) is filled with 3-year-olds that have raced at some of the sport's most famous tracks such as Santa Anita Park, Gulfstream Park, and Keeneland.
Yet in this 148th edition of the Run for the Roses at Churchill Downs, the favorite for the opening leg of the Triple Crown has ties to the more modest racing at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn.
No, Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G1) winner Zandon has not raced there. It's through his owner, Minnesota's Jeff Drown, whose visits to the home of the Claiming Crown and Wiener Dog racing some two decades ago ignited a love of the sport that will bring him and his team of trainer Chad Brown and bloodstock agent Mike Ryan to Churchill Downs May 7 in the enviable position of having the 3-1 morning-line choice in America's most famous race.
"It's all been very exciting," 47-year-old Drown said. "It's an honor just to get a horse to the Kentucky Derby. Virtually every owner wants to experience the thrill of running a horse in it and to do it with a horse that is a legitimate contender, that's incredible."
What's also incredible is the way Drown has risen to the stratosphere of the sport through a small stable of about six horses that race under his name and two with his good friend Don Rachel. Those runners have combined for just 12 starts in 2022, with four of them coming in stakes, reflecting how quality over quantity has been a successful formula for the Clearwater, Minn., resident.
"Jeff considers all the information he's getting, processes it and makes the call," Drown said. "He hasn't sent me a tremendous number of horses but they have been a high percentage of high quality horses. That's a sign of a good stable."
One of those "high quality" horses was Structor, an $850,000 2-year-old buy who is now a stallion in Japan. Owned by Drown and Rachel, trained by Brown, and purchased by Ryan, the son of Palace Malice gave Drown his first huge thrill in racing when he won the 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Presented by Coolmore America (G1T).
It was an electric moment at Santa Anita, far removed from the days when Drown's initial visit to Canterbury Park with his parents and future wife, Jill, opened his eyes to the joys of horse racing.
"We had a lot of fun that afternoon at Canterbury," he said of his introduction to the sport.
It led to more frequent visits to the races with some friends and then joining a few of them in the purchase of a claimer.
"We did pretty well and I thought I should stick with it," Drown said about his venture into the claiming game. "Owning horses has been a great thing for me. I have a real estate and construction company and it's what I do every day. Just like anything else, not every day is perfect and as you go through your day and you want a break, I can shift my focus to the horses and it's a totally different feeling. For me, it's a fun opportunity to be able to look at something totally different."
From those humble roots, the growth of Drown's Lyon Contractors business gave him the financial resources to make a major expansion of his involvement in the sport.
"About six or seven years ago, I started to develop a program with a little more focus," Drown said. "We were having fun but not seeing the financial side of it."
Success followed once he teamed with Ryan, who has become a close friend, and Drown, leading to his euphoric Breeders' Cup victory and now culminating with Saturday when he will attend the Kentucky Derby for the first time.
"I told my wife for years that I didn't want to go to the Kentucky Derby until we have a horse in it," said Drown, whose horses owned under his name and with Rachel have earned slightly more than $3.7 million since 2003.
Not only does he have "a" horse in the Kentucky Derby, but in the eyes of some handicappers, he has the added thrill and pressure of having "the" horse in the race.
Zandon, a son of Upstart bred in Kentucky by Brereton C. Jones, has only raced four times but boasts an impressive body of work and earnings of $713,000.
Scouted by Ryan and Brown at the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, the son of the Creative Cause mare Memories Prevail was purchased for $170,000 from the Jones/Airdrie Stud consignment and hails from a female family that includes Significant Form, a multiple graded stakes winner by Creative Cause. After just four career starts, Zandon, the colt named for a guide on one of Drown's hunting trips, is already a grade 1 winner.
"He appeared to be an awfully good horse. He was a bit later in the sale (Hip 2686), but Mike and Chad called and they were very excited about him so we bid on him and got him," Drown said.
Zandon's top-level win came April 9 in the Blue Grass at Keeneland, when he staged an impressive rally as he dropped back to 11th and last after six furlongs but nevertheless recorded a decisive 2 1/2-length victory over Smile Happy (post 5, 20-1 in the Kentucky Derby) that inspired linemaker Mike Battaglia to install him as the morning-line choice in the Kentucky Derby.
It was an adventurous trip that evoked memories of his previous starts in the Risen Star Stakes Presented by Lamarque Ford (G2) when he broke in the air and rallied wide in the stretch to finish third behind Epicenter (post 3, 7-2) and Smile Happy. His 2-year-old finale was in the 1 1/8 mile Remsen Stakes (G2), in which he lost by a nose to Mo Donegal (post 1, 10-1) after a heated stretch duel filled with some bumping and intimidation that resulted in an unanswered request for an appeal after the stewards called for an inquiry but let the order of finish stand.
Given what awaits the stretch-running colt Saturday over the course of 1 1/4 miles in a bulky 20-horse field, those tumultuous experiences could be a blessing in disguise.
"He has had adversity in most of his races. He's taken dirt. He's been bumped and hit. He's just fearless. We all know it's pretty tough to get a perfect trip in the Derby, so you have to overcome some adversity and he's already versed in that," Drown said. "We really think he'll get the distance. The way he closed in the Blue Grass and galloped out, it looked like he wanted to go a mile and a quarter that day, and when you combine that with the trouble he's faced, it adds to the excitement for us."
Brown, a four-time Eclipse Award recipient as the year's top trainer, is searching for his first Kentucky Derby victory and sees a wealth of positives in the way Zandon is coming into the race.
"He has the right numbers (speed figures), the right pattern and he has the right works," said Drown, whose horse will break from post 10. "We're ready to go."
Though Brown already has a legion of accomplishments to his credit, such as 15 Breeders' Cup wins and four years as the national leader in earnings, Drown would love nothing better than to help the 43-year-old trainer record a maiden Kentucky Derby win to provide an exclamation point to a career dominated by major turf wins.
"I told Chad, 'I'm going to give you good turf and dirt horses.' He's a good trainer. He's not a good turf trainer. He's a good trainer period. He trained under Bobby Frankel so it's not like he didn't see how to train a dirt horse," Drown said. "What I like about him is that he takes very good care of the horses. He's very conscientious. If there's any little thing wrong with them, he sends them home to the farm."
Brown said he enjoys working with Drown and understands why the Minnesotan has been so successful.
"Jeff is a pleasure to work with. He's really knowledgeable and very quiet but he listens and when he has something to say it's well-thought-out. He watches a lot of races and knows what he's talking about," Brown said. "He's a very successful person in life and horse racing is no different. It didn't take him long to figure out how to build the right team and I'm happy to be a part of it."
A day before the Kentucky Derby, Brown will saddle Spicer for Drown and Rachel in Friday's $500,000 Edgewood Stakes Presented by Forcht Bank (G2T) at Churchill Downs. The 3-year-old daughter of Quality Road is coming off a second in the Florida Oaks (G3T) and seems poised to kick off an unforgettable weekend in Louisville for Drown and his family that reflects a journey that started with claimers at Canterbury Park and will reach its apex with mint juleps under the twin spires of Churchill Downs.
"It's tough to win races but when you do, it's super exciting. My family travels with me all over for races and we all enjoy it. It takes us to fun places and we meet fun people. It's a great thing for our family," said Drown who along with Jill has five children ranging in ages from 16 to 7. "Whatever happens, this weekend is going to be fabulous."
