Cliff Brown back in town

Cover image courtesy of Cliff Brown Racing

Racehorse trainer Cliff Brown was 13 years in Singapore when he made the decision to come home, upping stumps from the searing climes of Asia for the cooler, muddier beauty of the Mornington Peninsula.

“The thing I'm struggling with is the rain and the mud,” Brown said. “And yet I grew up on a farm where it did nothing but rain and it was nothing but muddy, so it’s a bit bizarre. But that’s just me, I’m a bit over the mud.”

Ankle deep in a Melbourne winter, Brown has 40 boxes at Mornington Racecourse, a number he doesn’t expect will grow any time soon. He brought seven horses home to Australia with him from Singapore, among them the talented gelding Inferno (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}), a winner of eight of nine starts in Singapore, while the trainer's first runner will likely occur in mid-July.

“I’m keeping the depression at bay,” Brown said, his sarcasm in good cheer.

Pedigree student

Cliff Brown was 38 when he moved to Singapore in 2008, a wife and three kids in tow and a successful training career already behind him.

Raised at Narbethong, east of Melbourne, population 205 at the last census, Brown was a country boy, and enjoyed tenures with the likes of trainer Rob McGuinness at Caulfield during his teens.

On his own two feet during the 1990s, Brown trained a succession of excellent horses, including Cheviot (Average Game), who was the trainer’s first Group 1 winner in 1996, winning the South Australian Derby. The horse also won the G2 Sandown Cup in 1998.

There was Markham (Salieri {USA}), who also won the G1 South Australian Derby for Brown, and was a gallant third to Might And Power (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}) and Doriemus (NZ) (Norman Pentaquad {USA}) in the 1997 Melbourne Cup.

There was also Tarnpir Lane (Average Game) who, in 1997, won the G1 Rosehill Guineas, the then G2 Memsie S. and G3 Autumn S. at Caulfield. He was also second in the G1 Epsom H. and third in the G1 Yalumba S. to Filante (NZ).

Both Cheviot and Tarnpir Lane were by the stallion Average Game, who was a son of Century and a very good racehorse. Average Game was a Group 3 winner in 1988 and, through only four seasons at stud covering just 108 mares, he got a pair of very handy racehorses.

Brown’s father, Don, who passed away only last year, purchased Average Game as a yearling, and they stood the stallion at home for two seasons before he went to South Australia. Don Brown was a scholar of thoroughbred breeding, but an unlikely horseman.

“He put a heap of work into breeding horses,” Brown said. “He took it further than Bruce Lowe did, because he changed how the numbers were represented family-wise. He believed that over a period of time things had changed, and off small numbers, Dad was a remarkable breeder.”

By small numbers, Brown means the Lowe numbers, but equally Don Brown’s success with only a handful of horses on the family farm was quite a thing.

“He might have had 10 mares a year,” Brown said, “and from that came Tarnpir Lane, Cheviot, Markham, Hospitable and Emission. He was remarkable, but my dad was a property developer. He couldn’t put a headcollar on a horse.”

Far East form

In Singapore, Brown picked up where he had left off.

He was consistently among the top-five best trainers by numbers, with the likes of Debt Collector (NZ) (Thorn Park) in his yard, the 2016 Singapore Horse of the Year and a winner of 12 of 24 starts.

Debt Collector was retired from Asia in mid-2019, returning to Australia with a respiratory condition. Brown said the horse was a good example of how the animals can get weary from the relentless conditions of Asian racing.

“They’re beautifully looked after over there,” the trainer said. “The infrastructure in Singapore is incredible, but there isn’t that ability for them to get into a paddock to clear the mind, and it can be emotionally tough for them. You learn to work around it, but I think it only becomes noticeable when you’re not there.”

Debt Collector had eight starts in Australia after leaving Singapore in 2019. The best he managed was fourth in a Listed race at Flemington for new trainer Jim Conlan.

Brown said Inferno will be the yardstick for measuring Singapore form against Australian form this spring, with the 4-year-old gelding possessing a hell of a record in Asia that is yet untested locally.

“I think he’s a really decent horse, but I don’t know where that puts him in the standard of Australia,” Brown said. “In the time I was in Singapore, we had one truly international horse, and that was Rocket Man. So while I think Inferno is still a really good horse, you have to be conservative until you see what he can do.”

Rocket Man, by Viscount, won 20 of his 27 career starts for Singapore trainer Patrick Shaw, but he was also a winner and runner-up of the G1 Golden Shaheen in Dubai, was placed in Hong Kong and ran in Japan.

Inferno hasn’t raced outside of Singapore and, while the record of ex-pat Singaporeans returning to Australia isn’t perfect, he has the unique advantage of going back into the stable of the same trainer.

“When Debt Collector returned, he raced as Debt Agent and he was a great horse, but he was well past his prime,” Brown said. “This horse has good ability and he’s only had nine starts. He’s well and truly upping to go, and he’ll trial in about 10 days.”

Trainers are overrated

Brown’s decision to depart Singapore was equal parts COVID-19 and Singapore restructure. The Club was in trouble and, as Lee Freedman had found, it was getting difficult to find races for horses.

For Brown, the hardest part of the exodus was telling staff. He had loyal locals from both Singapore and Malaysia that he misses greatly, and it’s a measure of the trainer that he found work for them all before his departure.

“They were remarkable people,” Brown said. “You couldn’t find better.”

The trainer credits his success in Singapore to his team, but he is famously self-deprecating. He pays little attention to his numbers of Group winners, or where he sits on the premiership tables, tossing aside that sham for the everyday importance of keeping on.

Brown doesn’t have any social media accounts, and has the self-confessed attention span of a peanut. He writes everything down in a black notebook stashed in his back pocket, and readily admits that he has been “useless” with some very good horses in his past.

“I think trainers are a little bit overrated,” he said. “We can’t get a slow horse to win, for example. I think what separates good trainers from the average ones is that they can manage good horses better.”

How do you afford them?

From a bloodstock perspective, Brown has had a presence in the sale ring for a long time.

Before COVID-19, his Singapore year was carved up by the yearling and 2-year-old sales in Australia and New Zealand and, working closely with colleague Chris Bock, he would cherry-pick horses to bring up.

Traditionally, he’s never had a deep pocket, as much a matter of choice as necessity.

“We’ve never had big budgets,” Brown said. “And that’s racing in Singapore and a conscious choice.”

Inferno was selected by Bock at the New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale in 2018, costing the pair NZ$140,000 from the draft of Westbury Stud. By comparison, he was expensive, because Brown has had stakes success from horses that cost just $25,000.

This year, he hit the sales circuit in March, buying five yearlings at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale by stallions Written Tycoon, Sebring, Savabeel, Pride Of Dubai and All Too Hard.

At the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, he paid $220,000 for a Dundeel (NZ) colt from Endless Summer (Choisir), and then $40,000 for a Swear filly last month at the Magic Millions National Yearling Sale.

“We tried to buy others at Easter, but we just couldn’t get warm,” Brown said. “With the Swear filly, I don’t mind the stallion. I rang up Tim Brown at Magic Millions and asked what she was like, and the mare had thrown a stakes winner in America already. I just thought at $40,000, if she can run it will be great, and if she can’t it’s not a disaster.”

Brown purchased eight yearlings at the sales all up, each of which has gone to Jack Cavanough, son of Scone trainer Brett Cavanough, for breaking and pre-training. The boys go back a long way, with Brown testing that friendship on a regular basis.

“Brett used to break them in for me, but Jack does a far better job, and make sure you put that in the article,” the trainer said. “They’re a great family, great horse people.”

Looking ahead, Brown said he’s interested in a number of stallions. He has a penchant for Flying Artie, and a few others too.

“I do like Flying Artie, and I think he’s done really well off small numbers,” he said. “And I think Star Turn is going great guns. We could all state the obvious. Capitalist is doing great, but he’s had a lot of runners. Extreme Choice is a great stallion, but how do you afford them?”

Perhaps it’s his time in Singapore, where the average horse was a moderately priced yearling, or his conservative blood, but Brown doesn’t believe you need big bucks to get a good horse. His average spend across his eight-horse spree this year was a tick under $99,000, with a significant point of difference – none of these horses will head to Singapore, and the pond is much bigger down here.

“I’m under no illusions,” Brown said. “I ask myself all the time if I’ve done the right thing coming back, but I think you’ve got to be a terribly self-conscious person to never question yourself, and if you never question yourself you never improve.”