After annihilating the competition in Saratoga Race Course‘s opening-weekend stakes, the Chad Brown turf express heads “down to the shore” with a full head of steam for the $600,000 United Nations Stakes (G1T) July 23 at Monmouth Park.

Leading the charge in the 1 3/8-mile test is Tribhuvan , last year’s United Nations winner. The French-bred 6-year-old Toronado  gelding is backed up by stablemate Adhamo , a 4-year-old colt by Intello , who seeks his first U.S. win for the Brown team. Those two finished 1-2, respectively, in the Resorts World Casino Manhattan Stakes (G1T) in their last start.

Tribhuvan has four U.S. wins from 10 U.S. starts, two of them in grade 1 affairs. Adhamo, on the younger end of the Europe-to-Brown pipeline, has made three starts for the trainer, finishing second in the Fair Grounds Stakes (G3T), third in the Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic (G1T) at Churchill Downs, and second in the Manhattan.

While many trainers try to avoid running their top horses against one another, Brown takes the opposite approach— in part because he has more good horses than there are good races for them but also because intramural competition in the morning helps him place them in the afternoons.

He explained after saddling the first four finishers in the Diana Stakes (G1T) on opening weekend at Saratoga.

“I’m just so lucky to have so many great horses in the division. When you can work them together and put them into different situations in their morning drills, I can really see when they’re in peak form and I can identify their preferred way to run,” Brown said.

“They separate each other when you run them together. My approach is, I would rather run them against each other and settle it on the track than start to cherry pick who’s running and who’s not and a bunch of ‘what ifs’ if I ran the one I didn’t run.

“I like to run the horses against each other, settle it out on the track.”

The Diana field was only six-deep, so Brown’s domination was all but inevitable. The field for the United Nations is bigger but arguably easier, especially after the putative main rival, Gufo , drew the outside gate in the 10-horse field. He also shares high weight of 124 pounds, conceding six pounds to Adhamo and other rivals.

Gufo, a 5-year-old Declaration of War  horse, finished 10th in the 2021 Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1T) at Del Mar but otherwise has never been out of the first three in 16 other starts. The Christophe Clement trainee, racing for Otter Bend Stables, won the Pan American Stakes Presented by Rood & Riddle (G2T) at Gulfstream Park before vacating winter quarters and since has been second in the Man o’ War Stakes (G1T) and third in the Manhattan Stakes—behind the Brown rivals he faces again.

Epic Bromance  was third in last year’s United Nations and returns. A 6-year-old gelding by the recently deceased Kitten’s Joy  , Epic Bromance has come up short in four intervening starts, all graded stakes.

Temple , a 6-year-old Temple City   gelding from Mike Maker’s barn, is in to test the Monmouth turf for the first time but hasn’t raced since April at Gulfstream Park. 

Kentucky Ghost  dropped in from Churchill Downs to win the Cliff Hanger Stakes May 28 and is back to take on some tougher rivals in the United Nations.

He’spuregold  appears the top hope among the locals, having won his last two starts on the local grass, albeit going shorter.