The owner of Betfred Derby favourite Benvenuto Cellini has removed a majority of his string from the stable of a US champion trainer.
Peter Brant, a 79 year old American industrialist and art collector, had a successful racehorse string in the 1970s in the US and Europe but took a 20 year break from the sport before returning in 2016.
He had based his US team with five-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown in New York since 2018 while also has shares in horses in Europe, notably Benvenuto Cellini who carried Brant’s colours to victory in the Chester Vase. The colt is now 9-4 favourite for the Derby on June 6.
Brant’s White Birch Farm co-bred the son of Frankel with Coolmore and he now races for a partnership of Brant, Sue Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith and Westerberg, winning three of his five starts with Aidan O’Brien.
Brant co-owned the Brown-trained Sierra Leone, winner of the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Classic, and was outright owner of French Oaks winner Gezora who was transferred to Brown after landing the Filly & Mare Turf under Francis-Henri Graffard last year.
She has been switched to Bill Mott after a debut defeat for Brown to one of her stablemates in a Grade 3 in May, in which she carried a weight penalty.
View 3 ImagesBenvenuto Cellini: favourite for the Derby(Image: Martin Rickett/PA Wire)
Confirming the news to DRF.com, Brant said: “I don’t want to take a horse that’s won great classic races around the world, including the Breeders’ Cup and then start picking spots where I’m spotting weight to very competitive horses in their first start of the year,” Brant said.
“Chad knows very well how I feel about the weight and it’s not that important to him. He doesn’t really believe it affects horses that much and I do.”
Brant said he would continue to support Brown despite also moving horses to Mott’s son Riley and Miguel Clement.
View 3 ImagesChad Brown: trainer has seen most of his Brant-owned horses moved
“We’ve won a ton of Grade 1s together and I’m very confident we haven’t won our last one together,” Brown said.
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“I would continue to give horses to Chad, absolutely,” Brant said. “I’ve done very, very well with him. I think he’s a great trainer and he’s a good friend.”
He added: “It’s really a question of where I thought I’d be able to make the most starts. In terms of the quality of horses, they’re distributed pretty equally. I wanted to get a number of horses in Kentucky so that’s what I did.”