SANTA ANITA : Brown Is Happy About Stable’s Winning Ways

When Dan Brown took out his trainer’s license four years ago, he thought his barn would be a conduit for winners.

“I was naive that way,” Brown said. “This is the greatest game, but it’s also the hardest.”

For a day, the game might have looked easy again to Brown, 34. He ran two-thirds of his three-horse stable at Santa Anita on Sunday, and the full brothers both earned paychecks, with Snow Kidd’n bringing in $66,600 for his victory at 14-1 in the $111,600 California Breeders’ Champion Stakes. In the race after that, another Snow Chief-Our Majorette offspring, Snow Major, ran fourth in a race for $16,000 claiming horses.

These horses have given Brown all of his victories. On his third try, Snow Kidd’n broke his maiden at Hollywood Park in late November and Snow Major won for the first time about two weeks later. Both horses race for their breeders, Maryjane and Frank D’Annibale.

“I trained the mother (Our Majorette),” Brown said. “These owners have stuck with me through thick and thin, and I’m grateful to them.”

Snow Chief won the California Breeders’ in 1986, starting a year that included a Preakness victory and an Eclipse Award as the best 3-year-old male in the country.

Brown, who is from Long Beach, has been working on the backstretch for years, starting out as a hotwalker for trainer Mike Mitchell. He was a groom for Randy Winick, worked as Doug Peterson’s assistant and credits another trainer, Steve Miyadi, for furthering his career.

With Corey Black riding him for the first time, Snow Kidd’n was bumped leaving the gate as the horse inside him, If I Only Knew, stumbled and went to his knees. Snow Kidd’n was ninth in a field of 10 after a half-mile, but once he moved up, Black was able to split horses coming into the stretch. Fandarel Dancer and Strategist were battling for the lead at the 16th pole when Snow Kidd’n passed them both to win by three-quarters of a length. Fandarel Dancer finished second, 1 1/4 lengths ahead of Strategist, with the 2-1 favorite, Hunt for Missouri, running fourth.

Snow Kidd’n’s time for seven furlongs was 1:22 1/5. Strategist had beaten him by a neck going one furlong less in a race at Santa Anita on Oct. 30. They ran at equal weights Sunday, with Fandarel Dancer carrying 122 pounds, six pounds more.

“I’m glad to see a little guy get lucky,” Black said of Brown. “I worked this horse once, after his first start, and then I missed his next two races because of another call and because I was in Japan.

“I couldn’t believe David Flores stayed on when his horse stumbled. He went in front of my horse’s feet and he had to stutter-step to avoid tripping on him. She slowed my horse down completely, but it may have ended up being a blessing in disguise. I was able to sit back there and ultimately weave my way through the pack.”

Horse Racing Notes

The on-track crowd of 35,547 ate more than 50,000 25-cent hot dogs as Santa Anita had a cut-rate day on many items, including admission and parking. Cliff Goodrich, Santa Anita’s president, said that the ratio of hot dog sales is usually one for every four fans, so about 9,000 sandwiches might have been sold on a typical day. To meet Sunday’s demand, Santa Anita was ready with 60,000 hot dogs.