Brown, Prat Score Graded Stakes Double at Tampa Bay

Chad Brown and Flavien Prat showed the Tampa Bay Downs crowd exactly why they were voted winners in their respective 2024 Eclipse Award categories, sweeping both graded stakes races on the Feb. 1 card with Running Bee and Saffron Moon. The runner-up in the $150,000 Tampa Bay Stakes (G3T) a year ago, Running Bee was unstoppable Saturday afternoon, flying home in new track record time over Northern Invader and Irish Aces. Following Saffron Moon's success in the Endeavour Stakes (G3T) earlier on the card, the bettors hammered Running Bee down to 3-5 odds in his 6-year-old debut. The Calumet Farm runner was coming off his best season yet in 2024 for Brown, winning three stakes races at three different tracks along the East Coast. When the gates opened, Edwin Gonzalez was full-send on Northern Invader, the pair cranking out even faster early splits than the fillies ran in a stakes-record-setting edition of the Endeavour. Following far behind Northern Invader's sizzling opening splits of :22.67 and :45.76, Running Bee slowly began cutting into the 10 lengths that separated him and the leader while maintaining his position along the rail. Angled into the clear with a furlong to go, the bay exploded down the middle of the lane, reeling in a battling Northern Invader and Irish Aces for a three-quarter-length win. Running Bee's final time of 1:38.85 eclipsed the former track mark of 1:39.25 set by Emmanuel in 2023. "I appreciate the Calumet team letting me run him here, because he had shown an affinity for Tampa," Brown said of Running Bee. "I thought this was a safe spot for him and hopefully there will be a grade 1 race with his name on it this year. To set the course record just puts a cherry on top of everything." Northern Invader, from the barn of Cherie DeVaux, ran gallant in defeat in what was his first start in nearly seven months, edging Irish Aces for the place by a nose. Irish Aces, fifth in the 2024 Tampa Bay for trainer Brendan Walsh, was well clear of the rest of the field, with Lorenz (BRZ) 6 1/2 lengths back in fourth. A 6-year-old son of the late English Channel, Running Bee improved his bankroll to $757,443 for his eighth win in 16 trips to the post. Saffron Moon Lowers Stakes Mark in Endeavour Highly regarded since breaking her maiden at Keeneland as a 3-year-old, CHP Racing's Saffron Moon broke through at the graded level while lowering the stakes record in the process in the $150,000 Endeavour Stakes. Despite the fact Saffron Moon was making just her second start in 14 months, the daughter of Malibu Moon had left such an impression in her previous nine outings that she stepped into the gate as the 8-5 favorite against a competitive group of older fillies and mares. Taken far off a brisk pace set by graded stakes winner Ocean Club, Saffron Moon rated willingly between horses as the runaway front-runner posted opening splits of :23.33, :46:64, and 1:10.12. Cued turning for home, Saffron Moon tipped to the far outside and mowed down the field with a powerful late rally. Finishing full of run, Saffron Moon ($5.60) hit the wire in a new stakes record time of 1:39.92. It was a photo finish 2 1/4 lengths behind Saffron Moon, with See You Around (IRE) edging Saffron Moon's stablemate Venencia (FR) by a head for second. Saffron Moon provided Brown with his fifth win in the Endeavour. The trainer has captured the race three times in the last five years, winning with eventual grade 1 winner Bleecker Street in 2022 and Counterparty Risk (IRE) in 2021. "(Prat) worked out a good trip (with Saffron Moon), as usual," Brown said. "I am so appreciative of him to fly all the way from the West Coast to ride there today. We have formed a great partnership and I look forward to it continuing." Recording the first stakes win of her career, 6-year-old Saffron Moon was bred by Cove Springs Farm in Kentucky. An $80,000 yearling at the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, she is one of three winners produced by her dam, the Medaglia d'Oro mare Crocus Hill, herself a daughter of the grade 1-winning turf mare Vacare.