A transatlantic flight once again paid off for Chad Brown in more than just frequent flier miles.
In 2023, the trainer made what has become a regular trip to the Tattersalls yearling sale in England. When he arrived, he signed off on a filly that bloodstock agent Mike Ryan picked out, a daughter of Night Of Thunder out of French mare Shemya. She cost Seth Klarman of Klaravich Stables $190,371.
As of 6 p.m. Friday at Saratoga Race Course, she’s a Grade 1 winner.
“I go to the sale every year and Mike and Mary Ryan run the show,” Brown said, after Portfolio Duration went gate-to-wire in the Grade 1, $750,000 New York Stakes. “They go over there and look at all the horses before I arrive, and then I go over and make the final selections. We’ve been doing it now for about seven or eight years, just buying yearlings and shipping them over here, and we’ve done quite well. Another Grade 1 winner.”
Brown sent out Portfolio Duration and three others in the New York.
He saddled three, with assistant Dan Stupp putting the tack on Kathynmarissa, who was coming off a win in the Grade 3 Modesty and had the lowest odds of the quartet at 7-2.
Portfolio Duration stretched out three-sixteenths of a mile from her last two starts, an allowance win and a second by a neck in the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day.
That’s where jockey Flavien Prat comes in.
The 2025 Eclipse Award winner took Portfolio Duration to the lead from the inside, moving slightly off the rail into the first turn. Favorite Gezora rushed up from the outside with Kathynmarissa, who did not break sharp, tracking her and Speed Shopper and Brown’s Pretty Picture inside of them.
Prat took them through fractions of :24.39 and :49.21, with Pretty Picture forcing the issue, followed by Speed Shopper, Gezora and a still wide Kathynmarissa. There were seven horses separated by just 4 lengths going into the far turn, with Prat maintaining a diminishing lead and Kathynmarissa making a threatening move as Gezora faded.
Off the turn, it looked like it would be a Brown match race down the stretch, but French invader Cankoura found her best stride on the rail, and it became clear that the Aga Khan’s filly would play a role in the result.
Despite the stretchout, Portfolio Duration had enough left and spurted away from stablemate Kathynmarissa, with Cankoura forced to get off the rail for her final burst.
She passed Kathynmarissa, but could not quite get beyond Portfolio Duration, who won by a head in a final time of 1:57.63 on the Mellon turf course.
“She jumped well. We thought that stretching out, she could be the speed,” Prat said. “She gave me a good run, tried hard. After the last time, I think she enjoyed a bit more ground. It took her a little bit of time to get going and today on the stretchout it was better.”
Portfolio Duration improved her career mark to 3-2-0 in five starts with earnings of $630,400 – more than three times that purchase price.
“It looked like there wasn’t a lot of pace and it looked like Flavien was able to take advantage of that,” Brown said. “Just handicapping the race, on a stretchout from a mile to a mile and three-sixteenths, that’s a pretty good jump . . . She figured to be on the lead if she broke well, so we gave him full clearance to do that.”
Brown said it is likely Portfolio Duration, bred in England by Michael Wates, will run in the Grade 1 Diana Stakes July 18 at Saratoga.
“A slight cutback to a mile and an eighth would be good if she’s good and healthy,” he said. “And then we’ll have to see if any of these others end up in that type of race.”
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