If a high-priced, Chad Brown-trained 3-year-old son of Gun Runner lining up for the Risen Star Stakes (G2) feels familiar, it's for good reason.
Two years ago, Brown brought a similar, twice-raced colt to Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots for the Risen Star, kickstarting an Eclipse Award-winning campaign with a victory in the 1 1/8-mile race. That 3-year-old, Sierra Leone , would later capture the Blue Grass Stakes (G1) at Keeneland before running second, beaten a nose, in the Kentucky Derby (G1) at Churchill Downs. Later in the year, Sierra Leone would take the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) at Del Mar—a race that would clinch him a championship in the 3-year-old male division.
When the Risen Star is renewed Feb. 14, Brown hopes for another auspicious result with Paladin. Like Sierra Leone, he races at Fair Grounds after his final start as a 2-year-old in the Remsen Stakes (G2), which he captured at Aqueduct Racetrack Dec. 6. Paladin also races for many of the same familiar ownership partners—Peter Brant, Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Brook Smith—along with breeder Jane Lyon's Summer Wind Equine, which retained an interest after the colt brought $1.9 million at Fasig-Tipton's The Saratoga Sale in 2024.
"We had a lot of success going this route with a good run in the Derby, a near win," Brown said. "So I figured we'd go the same path."
Paladin competes against Lecomte Stakes (G3) winner Golden Tempo and six others in the $500,000 Risen Star, a race that offers qualifying points to the Derby on a 50-25-15-10-5 basis to its top five finishers - higher than any race contested yet in the Road to the Kentucky Derby series. Officials at Churchill Downs use qualifying points as a preference system when the race lures more than its capacity field size of 20 horses.
Having won the Remsen Stakes, Paladin already has 10 points.
That is only fourth best among Risen Star participants, trailing Golden Tempo with 20 points, Gun Runner Stakes winner Chip Honcho with 14, and the multiple graded-placed Universe with 13.
Both Golden Tempo and Paladin are unbeaten in two outings.
Brown's regard for the Fair Grounds track surface was a contributing factor for wanting to run Paladin in the Risen Star, along with how Sierra Leone did in the Derby, as well as Zandon , who in 2022 was third for him in the Risen Star, victorious in the Blue Grass, and third in the Derby. He mentioned the Risen Star's points structure as another positive.
Late-running Golden Tempo, a Curlin colt owned by his breeders, Phipps Stable and St. Elias Stable, races for trainer Cherie DeVaux, who assisted Brown for a number of years before launching her own training career in 2018. Golden Tempo is stabled at Fair Grounds, while Paladin ships there after training in South Florida at Payson Park Training Center, where Brown trains many of his better horses during the winter.
"We certainly didn't crank him like it's Derby Day," Brown said of Paladin's training. "But I think we have him (ready). He has a lot of residual fitness from his two runs."
Tyler Gaffalione, aboard Sierra Leone as a spring 3-year-old through the Derby, picks up the ride on Paladin.
The only other shipper in the Risen Star is Courting, who adds blinkers for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher after a slow-into-stride fourth in the Remsen. Hall of Famer John Velazquez returns in the irons on the thrice-raced full brother to multiple grade 1 winner Clairiere.
Remsen runner-up Renegade won the Feb. 7 Sam F. Davis Stakes for Pletcher.
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, Saturday, February 14, 2026, Race 12Entries: Fasig-Tipton Risen Star S. (G2)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 Universe (KY) Christopher Elliott 122 Kenneth G. McPeek - 2 Golden Tempo (KY) Jose L. Ortiz 122 Cherie DeVaux - 3 Carson Street (KY) Ben Curtis 122 Brendan P. Walsh - 4 Paladin (KY) Tyler Gaffalione 122 Chad C. Brown - 5 Chip Honcho (KY) Luis Saez 122 Steven M. Asmussen - 6 Colt Forty Seven (KY) James Graham 122 J. Keith Desormeaux - 7 Courting (KY) John R. Velazquez 122 Todd A. Pletcher - 8 Quality Mischief (KY) Florent Geroux 122 Brad H. Cox -
