Times Union Sports Person of the Year: Chad Brown

The year that Chad Brown had would be a career for most thoroughbred horse trainers.

Brown, who celebrated his 39th birthday six days ago, dominated the racing calendar from start to finish. He won his first Eclipse Award as the nation's top trainer in January, won the Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown with Cloud Computing, in June, the Arlington Million with Beach Patrol in August, and then won a pair of races at the Breeders' Cup in November. All told, he won a whopping 46 graded stakes races, 16 of them Grade I. Oh, horses he saddled won more than $25 million in purses. No other trainer won more.

Heading into 2018, Brown has the early favorite for the Kentucky Derby in Good Magic, winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.

No, not a bad year at all.

For all that he did this year, Brown, who is from Mechanicville, has been selected as the Times Union's Sports Person of the Year. Here is what Brown, speaking by phone from his winter base in Florida, had to say.

Q: How does it feel to be named the Times Union's Sports Person of the Year?

A: I am honored, humbled. Going back to my days growing up in Mechanicville, it's nothing I would have ever predicted. Growing up, reading the Times Union, thinking I would be in it some day doing something with sports? No. It's another great accomplishment. I am very thankful for this honor.

Q: Do you think you are Mechanicville's favorite son?

A: (laughs). I would like to think I represent the city well and that I am well thought of and people are proud of my accomplishments. I bring a lot of positive news and the city some sort of attention during the (Saratoga) meet, anyway. It's a great community, I was able to go to Saratoga during Thanksgiving. I don't have any horses up there, but I am working over the phone. I really enjoy taking my dad down to Bubbles Diner in Mechanicville. We went a couple different mornings to have breakfast, and it was nice to see people come up and chat. It reminds me of how lucky I was to grow up in such a nice, safe community where all my friends' parents knew each other. We all grew up together. A wonderful place to raise your kids. To this day, I can walk anywhere into Mechanicville, be it a store or diner, you always see someone you know. That's the way the community is.

Q: It might take a half-hour to go through everything you did this year. Have you had any time to reflect on what you accomplished?

A: Tough question to answer. Yeah, there are different moments throughout the year when you try to pause for a moment when there are certain things happening that are great accomplishments for me and my team. You try and enjoy them, but, unfortunately, you can't freeze time. We have such a big business to run, that you have to keep moving forward. We have had some great times this year, and we have taken some time to enjoy them. Some great thrills. When you look back at it, you realize how hard it is to accomplish some of those things. It drives you to work even harder to get back. It was such a good feeling to hold that Eclipse Award or to lead that horse into the winner's circle at the Preakness or to win the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and have the early favorite for the Kentucky Derby. Those are moments, when they happen, it is such a high. But when you come back down to earth, you want to be back there so bad that you go right back to work.

Q: Is it mind boggling what you have been able to accomplish in a short time (he has been training on his own since 2007)?

A: I was fortunate enough to work for Bobby (Frankel, the late Hall of Fame trainer) in 2003 when he won (a record) 25 Grade Is. The bar was already high, and it becomes part of you. Not that I ever left him thinking, 'Oh, yeah, I can do that.' You work towards it, but because you are around it, that's what you expect your goals to be. For me, I don't take it for granted. But, on the other hand, I am aiming high. Everyone around me knows that.

Q: You have always been that way, haven't you?

A: I have. I am not being cocky or arrogant or being delusional of how hard it is to accomplish these things. But I am ambitious. I am driven. I have high expectations for both myself, first and foremost, and the people around me. I put a lot of pressure on myself to deliver. It's not easy. I put immense pressure on myself not to disappoint the clients, my staff and the fans. The position I am in at this level, you really have to be right with the decisions you make. There is not a lot of room for error. If you make errors, it's very costly. I understand that you can't be perfect, and, as I get older, I have a lot more patience than I used to have. I am a better, deeper thinker. I like to think that the process that I (use to) make decisions is better. I have been given some unbelievable opportunities with horses by some really prominent clients. But I am expected to be right.

Q: When you entered Good Magic in the Juvenile, he was a maiden, with two second-place finishes (one in the Grade I Champagne). Did you go into that race thinking 'This horse is going to win?'

A: Pretty much, yes. I don't want to say I was certain, because I wasn't. I thought it was worth the chance. I weighed the risks. I could be made to look bad if I was terribly wrong. Even if there was some factors where the horse would not have run well — would he handle the Del Mar surface? What was going to be his post position? Would he get a clean trip? Would he stay healthy flying out there (to California from New York)? I don't know. But if you want to work with this caliber of horse for clients as prominent as Bob Evans (e Five Racing Thoroughbreds) and Barbara Banke (Stonestreet Stables), then I have to be right more than I am wrong. This time it worked. If I don't want to be in that position to have that pressure, then I should step aside and let someone else do it. I am not that way.

Q: Do you have any plan mapped out for Good Magic to get him to the Kentucky Derby?

A: No. He is at Stonestreet Ocala division (a training center). He is supposed to come to me next week at Palm Meadows (training center near Boynton Beach, Fla.) and then we will start to plot a plan for him. Right now, the Kentucky Derby is our goal and we think we have an extremely talented horse to get there.

Q: Looking back on this year, is there one horse that stuck out to you more than any other? One horse who his or her performance wowed you?

A: Yes. Cloud Computing (co-owned by Albany's Bill Lawrence) in the Preakness. That was a major achievement for our team to win a Classic race on the dirt. A historic race, in our first try. The way that horse surged at the wire to get there is a feeling I can't really describe. As much as I want to get there and win that race again, I hope that some of my fellow trainers, at some point in their lives, get to experience that feeling. It was incredible, and I am so proud of that horse.

Q: Where is he now?

A: He is with me at Palm Meadows. He exited the Travers (eighth-place finish) with a chip in his front ankle. It was removed with a good prognosis. He looks great and is just starting up training. No timetable when he will return to racing.

Q: With 2018 on top of us, have you set new goals?

A: We always set goals to do better than we did the year before, and, amazingly, we are on a record run. And it keeps happening. I know, sadly, one of these years, that streak is going to come to an end. You just can't keep going higher and higher. It doesn't seem possible. So far, we have made it possible with a lot of hard work from my staff. My goal is to do even better next year. To keep raising the bar.

twilkin@timesunion.com • 518-454-5415 • @tjwilkin