LAUREL, Md. – Two years ago, after a lengthy period of frustration, Chad Summers was about to quit training horses. The breaking point came on Aug. 17, 2024, when veterinarians at Monmouth Park were giving him a difficult time regarding running Instant Coffee in the Grade 3 Philip Iselin Stakes. Summers said he was forced to train the horse the morning of the race in order to satisfy the vets. In a race Summers felt he had a chance to win, Instant Coffee, owned by Al Gold, ultimately finished fifth in a six-horse field. “After that, I talked to Al and said maybe we just need to have trainers that can deal with certain things that I can’t deal with,” Summers said. “We started making an exit plan, started moving horses to a few different trainers.” On Aug. 29, 2024, a 2-year-old colt named Filoso won a one-mile maiden race by 3 1/2 lengths at Saratoga. Summers had hope – and a change of heart. “When you have a good horse in the morning time, especially when it’s on the [Kentucky] Derby trail – at that time he was a 2-year-old getting ready for the Breeders’ Futurity – it’s difficult to just walk away,” Summers said. “If it wasn’t for my staff and my horses I definitely would have walked away.” Filoso, who finished third in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity, didn’t quite make it onto the Derby trail. Another 2-year-old in that crop, Cyclone State, won three straight races, including the Jerome in his 3-year-old debut, but didn’t make it either. But Summers saw reason for optimism and decided to stay in the game he had grown a passion about it from his youth. Saturday, Summers was rewarded for sticking with it when Napoleon Solo, a horse he picked out for $40,000 at auction, won the $2 million Preakness Stakes at Laurel Park. It was the first horse Summers, 41, started in a Triple Crown race. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. “There’s been a lot of trials and tribulations along the way,” Summers said. “I’ve almost quit about three or four times, been forced into retirement a few times. But we’re still here, we’re battling and we got the victory [with] a horse we bought for $40,000, which I love the most.” It was also the first classic win for Gold and rewarded the trust he put into Summers, someone who he didn’t know that much about before he hired him more than six years ago to start buying horses for him. “I’d heard from many people he’s as honest as could be and he’s capable and I wanted to see a little guy win,” Gold said. “You can always give a horse to one of the big guys and I have in the past, but it’s different when you give someone who had success way back when and give him horses and it helps turn around his career.” Summers had success early on in his career with inexpensive purchases. He bought the New York-bred Mind Your Biscuits for $30,000. That horse, trained by Summers, won the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen in both 2017 and 2018. He finished his career as the highest-earning New York-bred in history with $4.2 million. Summers also bought Off the Tracks for $50,000. That filly won the Grade 1 Mother Goose for Todd Pletcher. “I went from six horses to 60 and I had every big owner’s worst horse and they said, ‘Make him a champion. You bought Mind Your Biscuits for $30,000 and have them ready to run at Saratoga,’ ” Summers said. “I was young and cocky and brash and I thought it was possible. I’ll just train them all like Mind Your Biscuits. You learn quickly that you can’t do that.” In 2020, Summers started buying horses for Gold. The first one he purchased was Cyberknife, a son of Gun Runner who went for $400,000 – the most money Summers had ever paid – or advised someone to pay – for a horse. Cyberknife, trained by Brad Cox, won two Grade 1 stakes and got Gold to his first Kentucky Derby, though he finished 18th. The second of those Grade 1 wins was the Haskell at Monmouth Park, the track Gold, a longtime Ocean Township, N.J. resident, called home for many years. The Haskell, on July 18, is the next major goal for Napoleon Solo. Summers picked out others at auction for Gold, who would go on to win Grade 1 stakes with other trainers – Full Count Felicia (Kevin Attard) and Howard Wolowitz (Jose D’Angelo). While Summers had been training for Gold since 2021, he wasn’t getting his better horses. After Gold ran through several trainers – many of the top names in the game – he switched most of his horses to Summers in 2025. It was last fall when Napoleon Solo won the Grade 1 Champagne at Aqueduct. “I guess it was the immaturity of me, that I didn’t know how the game was played in a lot of instances, so I figured it was easy to just keep changing trainers. I got an education that way,” Gold said. “[Summers] was just some kid who loved the racing like I did, he just happened to be 30 years younger than me. We talk about the frustrations of the game, we’re both very sensitive, so we get disgusted with the way things are and the people we meet a lot of the time but, ultimately, we got very close and we’re doing well now. At least we had a good day [Saturday].” Summers said the key to sticking it out with Gold is taking his criticism when it comes. “He’s a very passionate owner, he’s a very passionate man and there are expectations and you have to produce and you have to be able to take it and try to keep his horses sound,” Summers said. Summers said his stable size is in the mid 30s, half of which are for Gold. Some of the horses Summers buys at auction still go to other trainers such as D’Angelo, Attard, and this year, four 2-year-olds are going to Riley Mott. Mott said he’s been impressed with the young horses he was given by Summers and Gold, led by How’s Al Today, a 2-year-old son of Munnings who could be ready to run in June. “Chad picks out a very nice horse. He’s pretty sharp at the sale, clearly,” Mott said. “He and Al have done very well together the last two or three years. They’ve come up with some good runners. They supported us with some good babies and I think Chad bought them all and I like every one of them so far.” Seems like Summers will be staying around a little longer. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.