Trainer Chad Brown, the winner of the 2022 Preakness Stakes with Early Voting, pleaded not guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor charge of “obstruction of breathing,” according to media reports.
The arrest occurred Wednesday night in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where Brown’s horses are running in the Saratoga Race Course meet.
Kayla Potter, assistant district attorney in Saratoga County, said in court Thursday that Brown, 43, pushed a woman down the stairs at his home, held her down and tried to choke her, then threw her out of the house, the (Albany) Times Union reported.
He appeared at his arraignment wearing a Pink Floyd T-shirt, shorts and slippers. He was expected to post bond and be released.
Brown is a local favorite from nearby Mechanicville, N.Y., who got his start in the profession working as a teen at Saratoga. He has two horses scheduled to run Thursday at the course.
He is the leading trainer at Saratoga this summer, with 27 wins in 112 starts and $3.3 million in winnings.
Cloud Computing, trained by Brown, won the 2017 Preakness Stakes, giving the trainer two career wins in Triple Crown races. He won the Eclipse Award as outstanding trainer for four straight years (2016-19).
On the year, Brown-trained horses have won 168 races in 569 starts, with purse earnings of $19.8 million.
In 2019, he struck an agreement with the federal labor department to pay more than $1.6 million in illegally withheld overtime wages, back pay and penalties connected to complaints at his barns.
Ten years earlier, New York state fined him for failing to properly pay overtime.
–Field Level Media
