From Santa Anita Publicity
ARCADIA, Calif. (June 20, 2020) — Veteran trainer Rafael Becerra was all smiles Saturday morning, as his talented California-bred juvenile Touchdown Brown ran lights-out in his debut in Friday’s fourth race, demolishing seven Cal-bred rivals by 5 ¼ lengths while getting 4 ½ furlongs in 52.81.
“He’s really good this morning, he pulled up great,” said the popular Becerra, 65. “The owners told me they’re already getting a lot offers, but the good news is, they’re not selling. I got this horse in mid-March and from day one, he acted like a good horse. We went to the track with him right away and he galloped perfect and he’s got a very good mind.
“You could see he’s got a nice way of moving and my exercise rider really liked him right from the start. When we started breezing him, he did everything easy and outworked a good horse of mine in company.”
A homebred colt by Cairo Prince out of the Cherokee Run mare Chicalelee, Touchdown Brown, who is owned by Edward J. Brown, Jr., Alan Klein and Phillip Lebherz, was off as the 3-2 favorite and paid $5.00 to win.
Breaking alertly from post position seven, Touchdown Brown, who was ridden by Evin Roman, was on the move while third, about 1 ½ lengths off the lead approaching the quarter pole. From there, he entered the stretch three-deep and when he switched to his left lead, forged to the front approaching the sixteenth pole winning under a hand ride in a tremendous effort.
Becerra, who started on the racetrack at age 16 in 1971 with the legendary Farrell Jones and his Hall of Fame son, Gary, has been training on his own since Gary Jones’ retirement in 1996 and has long been regarded as a hard working, no-nonsense horseman who helped develop multiple graded stakes winner Kingdom Found, a California-bred gelding, foaled in 1990, who banked $810,863 in a career that spanned seven racing seasons.
What’s next for Touchdown Brown?
“With all the money that’s available, the owners agree that we’re going to stay with Cal-breds for now,” said Becerra. “We’re going to run him in the Graduation Stakes (5 ½ furlongs, Aug. 2 at Del Mar) and we’ll see where we go from there.”
If yesterday’s result was any indication, Touchdown Brown figures to go a long, long way indeed.