This weekend, Chad Brown figures to learn more about his prospects for this year’s Kentucky Derby. Not only as a trainer, but as a breeder. On Saturday, Brown, the trainer, will send out Grade 1 winner Blazing Sevens in the Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park and the maiden winner Uncorrelated in the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham at Aqueduct. Brown, the breeder, will be represented by Practical Move in the Grade 2, $400,000 San Felipe at Santa Anita. All three races spread 100 qualifying points (50-20-15-10-5) to their top five finishers toward the Kentucky Derby on May 6. Given the listed post times, Brown will likely be in the Gulfstream paddock saddling Blazing Sevens for the Fountain of Youth when the San Felipe is run. But he will certainly be interested in learning how Practical Move fares in the San Felipe. :: KENTUCKY DERBY 2023: Derby Watch, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more Brown trained both Practical Move’s sire, the Grade 1 winner Practical Joke, and dam, the New York-bred turf mare Ack Naughty. Ack Naughty was part of the first group of horses owned by partnerships headed by Sol Kumin, a group of horses that included Lady Eli, Offering Plan, and Tammy the Torpedo. Ack Naughty, by Afleet Alex, raced strictly on turf, winning four races and finishing second seven times from 15 starts. Kumin said he grew attached to Ack Naughty and bought his other partners out when she was done racing. Brown agreed to partner with Kumin on Ack Naughty as a broodmare prospect. “We had always liked the horse when I trained it for him and his partners and we thought she had the potential to be a really good broodmare,” Brown said. “She was a really good-looking horse and had plenty of ability. She was a little better on the turf, but she had a dirt pedigree.” Ack Naughty’s first foal, a colt by Violence, ran into a fence and was injured and re-homed, Brown said. Brown used a breeding right he had to Practical Joke for Ack Naughty, and the resulting foal was Practical Move. Brown said to avoid any potential conflicts with his other clients, there was an always agreement between he and Kumin to sell the progeny of Ack Naughty. Desmond Ryan of Dell Ridge Farm, where Practical Move was raised, “rated this horse very high,” Brown said. “When I first saw the horse, I thought he was the best Practical Joke that I had seen.” However, he had a blemish on an X-ray and didn’t reach his reserve as a yearling. Brown sent the horse to Barry Eisaman in Florida to break and prepare him for the 2-year-old sale at Ocala in April 2022. “He had told me by early February that he was one of the nicest horses he had on his farm,” Brown said. “If they don’t ding you on the [blemish], you and Sol are going to get rewarded handsomely for your faith in the horse.” Though Eisaman told Brown the horse should go somewhere in the mid-$300,000 range, Practical Move brought $230,000. Brown believes the price was lower than anticipated because he was early in the sale, sold as Hip No. 97. “I believe if that horse had sold the next day this horse would have brought what Barry thought,” Brown said. Practical Move, purchased by Jean-Pierre and Leslie Amestoy and Roger Beasley was sent to Tim Yakteen in California. He won his maiden by disqualification in his third career start. After finishing third in the Bob Hope Stakes, Practical Move was a 10-1 upset winner of the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity on Dec. 17. Three weeks later, at Keeeneland’s January sale, Brown and Kumin sold Ack Naughty, in foal to Upstart, for $500,000. She was purchased by prominent New York breeders Chester and Mary Broman. “She needed to be with somebody who has a higher-level breeding program that either races or sells,” Brown said. “She has the perfect home with the Bromans, who have such a perfect, proven high-quality broodmare band over many years, so I’m really happy that she has a good home.” Brown and Kumin still have a yearling colt by Complexity out of Ack Naughty whom they plan to sell this September. As much as Brown will be watching the San Felipe, Kumin will be watching with even more interest. Kumin’s Madaket Stables is partners on two other colts in the race, National Treasure and Fort Bragg. “If we lose, [Practical Move] is the one I want to lose to,” Kumin said. Meanwhile, Brown is bringing Blazing Sevens, the Grade 1 Champagne winner, back to the races off a four-month layoff, since he finished fourth behind Forte in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland last November. Blazing Sevens is a son of 2018 Kentucky Derby runner-up Good Magic, whom Brown also trained. Brown likens Blazing Sevens’s preparation for the Fountain of Youth to that of Practical Joke and Good Magic, who finished second and third, respectively, in the 2017 and 2018 runnings of this race, in what was their 3-year-old debuts. Both of those colts then ran second in the Blue Grass Stakes and then came back to run in the Kentucky Derby, with Practical Joke finishing fifth, Good Magic second. “Those horses ran good, respectable, were finishing well in their races, moved on and both ran terrific in the Blue Grass,” Brown said. “I’m not saying we’re going to run this horse in the Blue Grass, but it set them for their next race and I see that with Blazing Sevens.” In New York, Uncorrelated will go from a debut win at six furlongs on Jan. 6 to the Grade 3 Gotham, where he is expected to face as many as 13 horses in the one-turn mile race. “I think time has helped that horse since his maiden race,” Brown said. “For the first two weeks after that maiden win, he was a little bit tired and he’s still growing. It’s a big step. I wish it was a little bit of an easier situation for him, but I think if I wait any longer, I’m not going to have the perfect race.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? 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