Chad Brown: how Bobby Frankel inspired Saratoga's local training hero

Local boy made good is an enduring, heartsweet motif; the notion of a hometown son or daughter making their name and their fortune and still remaining connected to their roots is a folksy staple of life. From the top of the Saratoga grandstand, with a decent pair of binoculars, Chad Brown could probably see all the way to where it all began.

America’s leading trainer is a local boy, and boy has he made good. Champion by earnings for the last three years, with a great shoal of Grade 1 wins on his roll of honour, Brown is proceeding majestically and mercilessly towards another title at Saratoga. With almost two-thirds of his runners at the track this summer finishing in the first three, bettors from the box seats to the far turn have good cause to regard him as a favourite son. That might even give him more satisfaction than his sackful of winners.

America's finest part one - Saratoga: the glorious course where you couldn't feel more alive