A $5,000 Lexington Selected yearling purchase is headed back to North America and into one of harness racing's top stables after being developed into a champion two- and three-year-old in Ireland.
Rainbow Writer, bred by Ontario's Doug Millard Farms and sold for $5,000 as a yearling at Lexington in 2018, raced at the top level across the Atlantic for owner Benny Grendon while in the barn of Patrick “Paddy” Kane Sr. She won back-to-back titles in the Black Horse Juvenile Series at Portmarnock Raceway among other stakes engagements. Now the mare readies for a run in the U.S. with trainer Brian Brown, who for yearshas had contacts with many members of the Irish harness racing community and gained the trust of Grendon to care for his stable star.
“I’ve never met these people, but I have a friend from over there that I met through Facebook,” Brown said. “The guy is pretty trusting to send me a horse [when] we don’t even know each other.”
Brown, who currently has 68 horses in training with his winter operation down in Florida, said that Rainbow Writer arrived in the U.S at the end of January and aside from that does not know much else about the mare.
“I heard she landed fine, everything’s good,” said Brown, noting that the mare is currently quarantining in Lexington. “It kind of puts us way behind here. Honestly, I don’t even know what she’s up to; what she’s been doing in Ireland. But the owner is very confident in her that she’s going to make a really good horse here. I told him ‘She’s going to have three weeks in quarantine. We’re going to be way behind.’ He said ‘The wait will be worth it.’ As long as he’s confident, I don’t have any reason not to be.
“Before we start, I would like to talk to the trainer from over there and get his thoughts...what she was doing before she came over, how long she’s been off, how long he thinks it will take me,” Brown also said. “He’s the guy who’s won all the races and done all the good with her. I want to talk with him no matter what. We’ll go from there. And the best part about her -- and I haven’t checked her out -- is that she should fit non-winners of one in the states. [Benny] says [1:]57 and a piece there could be [1:]51 here. So if I can start her out in the maiden and she’s that kind of horse, we should have some fun early.”
With the amount of time Rainbow Writer has to quarantine, Brown said she likely will not begin training until the latter part of February. Under the care of Brown’s daughter Jess McCown and his son-in-law Cameron McCown, Rainbow Writer may not be ready to make her first American start until June, though Brown said that could change depending on feedback from the mare’s trainer in Ireland.
The mare joins the Brown barn as one of a few older horses since Brown’s focus is largely on developing two- and three-year-olds. His barn last year struggled to find the same success it had achieved in the past, but Brown is optimistic that his stable can turn things around this year.
“It’s hurt us some last year, more with our three-year-olds because I missed a couple months of racing and I tried to go right into stakes races,” Brown said. “A lot of my horses last year didn’t race as two-year-olds, so they were really behind the eight ball there and it was just asking too much too soon. So it kind of hurt my three-year-olds. I didn’t have a good year with two-year-olds either, but it really wasn’t the pandemic...I just didn’t do very good.”
Brown's trainees for 2021 include a number from the first crop of his former star pupils Downbytheseaside and Fear The Dragon, and he's high on both of those sires thus far.
“Through the summer we got better. At the end of the year, trained a lot of Seasides, a few Fear The Dragons this year. I’ve got four JK Endofaneras that I really like, four Captaintreacherouses that I really like. A couple of the Fear The Dragons seem very nice. I’ve got 21 Downbytheseasides, and the majority of them seem like pretty nice horses. I’m actually looking forward to this year. I think we have a little more to work with this year, and I expect to do better than I have the last couple of years.”
Among the many horses Brown has returning to the track is Bayfield Beach, who last year finished second in the $720,000 Metro Pace and capped his year with a deceptively-good sixth-place finish in the $371,900 Governor’s Cup following a wide trip and the addition of Lasix.
“I raced that horse on Lasix his last start, and I think it made a world of difference,” Brown said. “He saw blood. We tried some different things, some supplements...that kind of stuff. He got beat a little over four lengths to win, finishing sixth. I think Lasix really improved him and I think that horse is going to have a nice year this year.
“His first training trip was Friday,” Brown also said. “He came in around the first of the year. It’s hard to say; I think he grew a little. He kind of lost his baby fat. He was always a great-looking horse last year. He’s maybe not quite as round, but by the time I get out of here I’m sure he’ll be pretty stocky. I like to get my horses pretty heavy down here, so when I go home and start turning up the speed and start to race them that they’re big and strong, and I don’t go backwards when I get up there.”
Presuming the 2021 stakes schedule goes unchanged as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, Brown said he wants to have Bayfield Beach ready to qualify by April in preparation for the first Pennsylvania Sires Stakes preliminary in May. Brown also said the colt is staked to “pretty much everything.”