For Chad Brown, the Triple Crown has been an exasperating experience lately.
In the last three Triple Crown races, Brown's horses finished second in two of them.
Go back to last year's Preakness Stakes (G1) where Blazing Sevens finished second for Brown.
By a head.
Then, two weeks ago in the Kentucky Derby (G1), Brown once again sent out the runner-up, Sierra Leone.
This time by a nose in a wild three-horse battle to the wire.
"I don't know if you ever totally get over it," Brown said about the loss in the opening leg of the Triple Crown, "but I've won a lot of photo finishes in my career so I have to accept a few that do not go my way, even if they are in the Triple Crown."
In a bid to stop that streak of close-but-no-cigar finishes, Brown will be going back to a familiar tactic with Tuscan Gold in the May 18 Preakness at Pimlico Race Course.
Brown, a four-time Eclipse Award winner as the outstanding trainer, owns two Triple Crown victories.
Both in the Preakness.
First, with Cloud Computing in the 2017 edition.
That 3-year-old bypassed the Kentucky Derby and won the middle jewel of the Triple Crown.
Then in 2022 with Early Voting .
He also sat out the Run for the Roses.
And last year's near miss by Blazing Sevens came after the 3-year-old did not run in the Kentucky Derby and entered the Preakness off six weeks rest.
So, guess what stands out about Tuscan Gold in the Preakness?
Yep, he did not run in the Kentucky Derby.
"Skipping the Kentucky Derby can be a tough decision to make," Brown said. "But in this case there was no decision because my horse didn't qualify for the Derby."
Of course, while there are differences, there are some similarities amongst Tuscan Gold, Cloud Computing, Early Voting, and Blazing Sevens. With eight weeks rest since a third-place finish in the March 23 Louisiana Derby (G2), Tuscan Gold also arrives at Pimlico as a fresh and rested lightly raced runner.
"It's a different route for him. There are some similarities in that he's a lightly raced horse who did not run in the Kentucky Derby, but he has taken a different path," Brown said.
The Louisiana Derby, contested at the same 1 3/16-mile distance at the Preakness, was just the third career start for the son of Medaglia d'Oro , owned by William Lawrence, Walmac Farm, and breeder Stonestreet Stables, and it came on the heels of an eye-opening 6 1/4-length score in a Jan. 31 mile-and-a-sixteenth maiden race at Gulfstream Park.
In the Louisiana Derby, Tuscan Gold raced wide after breaking from post 10 and settled for third, 1 3/4 lengths behind fellow Preakness starter Catching Freedom (6-1) and Honor Marie.
"As it shook out, I think he might have had a good shot in the Kentucky Derby. He ran a fast figure in the Louisiana Derby and I thought he should have won the race. But that's history now," Brown said.
While Tuscan Gold fell 10 points shy of qualifying for the Kentucky Derby, over the course of the past two months he has trained in a manner which convinced Brown that Baltimore on the third Saturday in May was the right place for the son of the grade 3-winning Curlin mare Valadorna (a half sister to Brown's grade 1 winner Complexity ).
"I'm really pleased with the horse. He's working very well," Brown said about the 8-1 shot in the morning line. "His last couple of works, he has come forward a notch and that's what I am looking for."
Tuscan Gold, who finished fourth behind Sierra Leone in his Nov. 4 career debut, was bought for $600,000 from the Jupiter Farm consignment at the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, and can earn back that sale price and then some by changing Brown's recent luck in the Triple Crown.
