SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.–Flash back to the fall of 2025. By then, trainer Chad Brown had a good idea that the new batch of young horses that had come into his powerhouse barn had promise. Plenty of promise. The future, he thought, was very good indeed.“I knew we had a really good group of dirt colts heading into their 3-year-old year,” Brown said outside his barn this week on the Oklahoma Training Track.The leader of the pack was a solid looking chestnut named Paladin (Gun Runner), a $1.9 million purchase from the 2024 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale by a partnership that included Peter Brant and the Coolmore principals (Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith).But, before you could say Have Gun-Will Travel, Paladin, once a promising player on the GI Kentucky Derby trail, was erased because of a non-displaced condylar fracture of his right front ankle.The good news is Brown expects him back in the fall. The bad news, well, he didn't make the Derby. Enough said.Another Brown-trained horse–Canaletto (Into Mischief)–also came off the Kentucky Derby trail with an injury after a third-place finish in the GIII Tampa Bay Derby.“He was right at the top of the list, the Derby favorite in February,” Brown said of Paladin, who was undefeated in three starts. “He had defeated both Golden Tempo (Curlin) and Renegade (Into Mischief) and you wonder, 'what if.”Brown will get his chance against the top two finishers in the Derby in the 158th running of the GI Belmont Stakes next Saturday.Actually, he'll have three chances. Brown will saddle Emerging Market (Candy Ride {Arg}), Growth Equity (Quality Road) and Ottinho (Quality Road) in the Belmont which will be run for the third, and final time, at Saratoga Race Course. The race returns to Belmont Park next year.Don't think for a second that these three–and you can add Iron Honor (Nyquist), the runner-up in the GI Preakness Stakes to the list–are subs for Paladin while he is on the equine disabled list. That's not the way the 47-year-old Brown, a five-time Eclipse Award winner, rolls.“It's not like they are replacements,” Brown said. “They are all on their own developmental pattern. I give the individual horses a chance to develop. They have made it to the Belmont with a good chance. With or without those other injuries, these horses would have likely found themselves in this race.”Emerging Market, owned by Seth Klarman's Klaravich Stables Inc., won his first two starts, the second being the GII Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds and earned a trip to the Run for the Roses despite the thin resume.Brown believed–he had won the GI Kentucky Oaks the day before the Derby with Always a Runner (Gun Runner) and she had just two starts–and Emerging Market got some play, going off at 8.78-1. He finished 10th after losing a shoe on the first turn.“It worked in the Oaks, it didn't work in the Derby,” Brown said. “(Emerging Market) has bounced out of it in good shape and is working well. We are giving him another shot. I am looking forward to getting him into a field that is not as big and bulky. Hopefully we'll have a better trip.”Also owned by Klarman, Growth Equity comes into the Belmont after a win in the GIII Peter Pan at Aqueduct in his fourth start. That came after he broke his maiden in start No. 3. This will certainly be an acid test for the colt, who has two wins and two seconds.The final Brown Belmont runner is Ottinho, owned and bred by Three Chimneys Farm LLC (Goncalo B. Torrealba). He hasn't been seen since finishing second, 11 lengths behind Further Ado (Gun Runner) in the GII Blue Grass at Keeneland.He came out of that race with a crack in his foot and Brown said they weren't really thinking Kentucky Derby with him anyway. The foot did not heal in time for the Preakness.“That horse wants every bit of a mile and a quarter,” Brown said. “He will stay all day, fitness wise. But you get into that, 'do they want this class level competition?' He will be tested. We'll find out.”Dylan Davis will ride Ottinho for the first time, Manny Franco will pilot Growth Equity (he has been on him twice) and Flavien Prat will ride Emerging Market for the fourth straight time. Emerging Market has been training at Saratoga; Growth Equity and Ottinho at Belmont.Brown has never won the Belmont–his best finishes were a second with Gronkowski (Lonhro {Aus}) in 2018 and a third with Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) in 2024. This will be first time he has ever started three horses in a Triple Crown race.“These horses are lightly raced,” he said “We have given them time, and their owners have been patient. They are in perfect health right now and I am excited to get them into this field and see what they can do.”The post Brown Will Take His (Three) Chances In The Belmont appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.