Brown Discusses Stacelita, Awesome Feather

10/2/2011 7:52 PM | horseracingnation.com

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Two races down, one to go for Stacelita, who yesterday won the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Invitational by an easy two lengths.

Owner Martin Schwartz brought the four-time French Group 1 winner to the United States to target the Grade 1 Beverly D., Grade 1 Flower Bowl, and Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf. After Stacelita finished third against males in the Grade 1 United Nations in July, she took the Beverly D. by 1 ¼ lengths in August.

"She's done what we have asked her to do," said trainer Chad Brown. "She's a remarkable horse. Her form is outstanding, and she's actually quite easy to train. I mean, she's always cooperative and shows up every morning to train. To execute Mr. Schwartz's plan, it's been pretty easy so far. I feel like it's time to get tested with the best around in the Breeders' Cup, so I'm looking forward to it."

In the Flower Bowl, Stacelita was kept in the clear by jockey Ramon Dominguez, made a three-wide rally on the far turn and was never threatened in the stretch.

"I was impressed with [her performance], with the fact she had to go wide," said Brown. "She's the kind of horse that in her races and in her training, she does what she has to do to win. I think when she finds her way to the lead at some point in the race she will lose her competitive edge just a little bit. I don't make too much about who she is beating, who she is not beating. She just does what she has to do. I see it every day in her training."

Brown will aim for another Belmont stakes win on Wednesday when he sends out Awesome Feather, last year's Champion 2-Year-Old Filly, in the seven-furlong Le Slew, a $60,000 overnight race.

Awesome Feather was purchased by Frank Stronach for $2.3 million at Fasig-Tipton's November Sale following her perfect 2-year-old season, which was capped by a 2 ¼-length victory in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. She was subsequently transferred to Brown, who had to take her out of training after her connections discovered a tendon injury.

The Le Slew will be Awesome Feather's first start for Brown and first since the Breeders' Cup.

"She's a special horse who has come around a lot," said Brown. "That's a serious problem she had, and right now she is 100 percent healthy. She's 100 percent sound. When a guy like Mr. Stronach, who has a lot of experience in the game, gives you the confidence to say, 'You do what you want to do. If she's good, I'd rather run her.' That's all I need to hear. In my opinion, she's 100 percent healthy right now, so I'm going to run her."

Brown said the Le Slew is an ideal spot for Awesome Feather to make her return.

"Obviously, she is out of [allowance] conditions," said Brown. "Obviously, I want to run on the dirt and I want to run around one turn off the layoff. All of those things I was looking for, preferably at our home track. I'm very fortunate the race was available to me. We'll run her on Wednesday and see how she runs and see how she comes out of it and see where to go after that."

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