In its fledgling years, Wathnan Racing may have made a major splash at Royal Ascot in particular, and added a 66/1 winner of the Dubai World Cup to its list of achievements in 2025, but the team now has another major prize in its sights the on the other side of the Atlantic.Commandment (Into Mischief) won last weekend's Florida Derby to take his string of victories for Brad Cox to four and put himself firmly in the reckoning for the Kentucky Derby on May 2.Billed as 'the greatest two minutes in sport', the first leg of America's Triple Crown does of course clash with some other important minutes of action in Newmarket, which will leave Wathnan Racing's adviser Richard Brown in something of a quandary as the first weekend of May approaches. As they say, it's a nice problem to have.“The original brief Olly [Tait, manager] gave myself and Case was to have horses that the Emir [of Qatar] and his family could enjoy. Commandment certainly ticks all of those boxes,” says Brown, who acknowledges that the exciting three-year-old comes under the wing of American-based racing manager Case Clay.“I'm getting encouraged strongly by Case and Olly to go,” he says of the Kentucky Derby. “I've only ever been once – I was there when Fu Peg [Fusaichi Pegasus] won while I was working in Lexington at Darby Dan – so I'm torn. I'd love to go and be a part of it with all the team but I'm also conscious that if we've got a load of runners here then I've got a job to do here.”Among those horses closer to home whose return Brown is anticipating as the Flat season steps up a notch is the mare Fallen Angel (Too Darn Hot). She is back in training with Karl Burke at the age of five and already has five Group 1 wins to her credit, three of which came in the Wathnan Racing silks following her purchase from breeder Steve Parkin. At this early stage of the year, Fallen Angel holds an entry for the G2 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Middleton Fillies' Stakes at York on May 14.“This is going to be our third full season and it's been a tremendous start to the project, so now it's all about keeping the momentum going,” Brown says. “I don't sleep very well at the best of times but certainly you feel the pressure to perform better again than we did last year. Fallen Angel was amazing, she won three Group 1s on the bounce, she's a superstar. And, you know, she's got a long time to stand in a field and be a broodmare, so it was very sporting of the powers that be to decide to keep her in training. She had a nice winter break at Newsells Park out in the paddock and she's back in now and in good shape.”Wathnan Racing had a different Derby dream last year when Damysus (Frankel) lined up at Epsom for John and Thady Gosden. Things didn't go his way when he sustained a minor injury in the stalls, but the flashy colt bounced back to win both his starts following the Derby, including finishing his year in style at Newmarket with a comfortable win in the G3 Darley Stakes. He looks set to return to the Rowley Mile for the G3 Earl of Sefton Stakes on April 15.Brown says, “The early signs this spring in his work have been good. James [Doyle] rode him in a piece of work on the Limekilns yesterday [Wednesday] and was very happy with him. He's not a massive horse, he's medium-sized, so I'm not sure he's growing up but he's certainly thickened out and we'll be looking to get his year started over a mile and one [furlong] in the Earl of Sefton Stakes.”Unfortunately, this year's Derby entry, the Chesham Stakes winner Humidity (Ulysses), has met with a setback which will rule him out of the first half of the season, but his Andrew Balding stable-mate Flora Of Bermuda (Dark Angel) is another who could soon be seen on Newmarket's Rowley Mile.“She's terrific, we just love her, and it just hasn't quite hit for her yet. She's come very close and she's hugely consistent. It's just so hard in these Group 1 sprints, there are so few opportunities. I just hope it can fall right for her,” Brown says of the five-year-old, who was placed last year in both the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes behind the Wathnan-owned winner Lazzat (Territories) and in the G1 Haydock Sprint Cup.“We are going to try and actually win a race with her, because although she's run some great races in defeat she's never actually won for us, so we're going to aim for the Ellen Chaloner Stakes, a Listed race over six furlongs on Guineas weekend. “That will be a tough race, obviously some of the better fillies around will be in it, but we're dropping back in class – she just keeps bashing her head against the wall in Group 1s, so the plan is to come back in class and start her off in that, then she'll hopefully build up back up during the season.” Richard Brown | Laura Green/Tattersalls The Jerome Reynier-trained Lazzat of course heads a strong hand of sprinters on the Wathnan Racing books and has been kept busy through the winter. Since being beaten a neck into second by Powerful Glory (Cotai Glory) – a colt bought by Brown for one of his other major clients, Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum – in the Qipco British Champions Sprint last year, Lazzat was second again in the G2 1351 Turf Sprint at the Saudi Cup meeting and was third last weekend in the G1 Al Quoz Sprint. “Lazzat's two best performances have been at Ascot when he won the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes and when he was chinned by Powerful Glory. We all retain complete faith in him and and he'll be freshened up to hopefully go straight to Royal Ascot now,” says Brown.The previous year's Qipco British Champions Sprint had been won by Kind Of Blue (Blue Point) on his first start for Wathnan Racing. He is yet to recapture that winning form but was second to Big Mojo in the G1 Haydock Sprint Cup.“We know on his day he's very good,” he adds. “It didn't quite happen for him last year but he's had a very good winter, he's getting up and running now and the plan is to start him off in Minster Stakes [formerly the Duke of York Stakes].”Map Of Stars (Sea The Stars), trained by Francis Graffard, is another classy member of the French team and won two group contests last spring. “He was probably unlucky last year in the Ganay,” Brown notes. “We've gelded him and given him a long winter off and he's a horse, again, that we hold in high regard.”With Humidity temporarily sidelined, Brown points to a “dark horse” for the notebook in the Gosden-trained Organise. The Night Of Thunder colt was a Tattersalls October Book 2 yearling purchase at 360,000gns and has raced just once so far, winning a seven-furlong novice event by a cool seven lengths at Southwell last November.“James rode him work yesterday [Wednesday] and was very taken with him,” he says. “We will go a gentle route – he's just improved all spring and he's just really coming to himself now. He's not going to be ready for anything flash early, he's actually a May foal, so he'll go the novice route and we'll take it from there, but he's a colt that we're certainly liking the look of.”Classic trials may be looming, but in the Wathnan Racing camp thoughts have already turned to mid-June and Royal Ascot, where Courage Mon Ami and Gregory first announced the arrival of their owner on the main stage with their victories in the Gold Cup and Queen's Vase of 2023. The following year, Leovanni and Shareholder plundered the Queen Mary and the Norfolk Stakes as part of a Wathnan Racing four-timer at the royal meeting, and that record rose by one in 2025, when Crimson Advocate, Haatem, Humidity, French Master and Lazzat made it another Royal Ascot to remember. The approach to the meeting has traditionally involved some high-profile in-training purchases as well as a smattering of horses selected at the breeze-up sales. So what will this year have in store?“We're working on it as we speak,” Brown says. “Royal Ascot is the biggest part of our season – it's a huge focus for us and we all know how hard it is to have a single winner there, so what's happened since we started has been amazing, with two the first year, and then four [winners], and then five last year. I keep trying to prepare everybody in the team that it's highly unlikely that we'll be able to better it, but we'll certainly try to have a winner and everything after that would be a massive bonus.”He continues, “It's just we've been very, very lucky there, a lot of things have gone our way, but that won't always be the case, and we're very realistic about how hard it is to win there. But every horse we have that has a chance to get to Royal Ascot will be campaigned to get there and then we just need a lot of luck.“We're doing some planning now and I'm writing a report for Olly Tait, and then we'll discuss buying strategies in the next week or so. We've already got a nice team, but as to how that's going to be built upon I haven't had any guidance yet.” The post From a Derby Dream to a Dark Horse: Richard Brown Runs Through Wathnan Racing Prospects appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.