Trainer Ronney Brown has one eye on winning the first stakes race of the year at Charles Town April 12 — and another on the prospective future for one of his recent, impressive debut winners.

Charles Town will host the $75,000 Original Gold Stakes for West Virginia-bred fillies and mares traveling the two-turn distance of seven furlongs on April 12. That event is named for the Brown trainee who won seven of 17 career outings and banked nearly $375,000 while capturing consecutive editions of the Cavada Breeders Classic in 2004 and 2005. Original Gold remains to this day the richest runner Brown has saddled.

Brown will saddle one of the likely favorites for this year’s Original Gold in Lightnin Runner, a sharp winner of her 2025 bow March 27.

At the same time, he’ll be looking for a spot for Country Cherry, a Maryland-bred sophomore who won by 10 lengths in her career debut in March.

“I really liked her when I saw her walk into the sales ring,” Brown said of Country Cherry, a daughter of First Mondays who fetched only $7,500 as a yearling at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic fall yearling sale in 2023. “She always looked and acted like she was going to be okay. I took my time with her, but she really worked well leading up to her first start. I wasn’t expecting her to run that well, but she did it easily.”

With Christian Maldonado in the irons, Country Cherry prevailed at first asking on March 22 by stopping the timer in 52.84 for the 4 1/2 furlongs, winning by 10 ¼ lengths as the 4-5 favorite. Another talented Maryland-bred filly, Mudslide, captured a one-turn allowance dash later that same evening in 52.39 for trainer Kelly Lynn Deiter.

“I knew she would break pretty well, and I just told Christian [Maldonado] to get away cleanly with her and not to rush her up, but she did it on her own,” Brown said. “Her final time was not much slower than Mudslide’s, and that filly is a year older than mine, and my filly did it easily.”

Since Country Cherry is a Maryland-bred and not eligible to the bevy of conditions offered to West Virginia-breds over the strip, Brown noted that he will look to pick his spots carefully with her. 

“I’d like to see her win all of her conditions here before I try to find something else for her down the road,” Brown said. “There’s no reason to rush her. If she wins her conditions here, then I’ll start looking for a Maryland-bred allowance for her at Laurel.”

Brown, who through April 1 already boasted 34 winners from 167 starters this year, has saddled 3,230 winners from nearly 18,500 starters in his career. Those runners have earned over $39.8 million, so he could reach the $40 million plateau sometime this month.

But his first concern is landing the Original Gold Stakes for state-bred distaffers with Lightnin Runner, who sports 10 wins and nearly $275,000 banked from 20 lifetime tries. The five-year-old Battalion Runner mare, owned by George Nyren, prevailed smartly in her seasonal debut on March 27 when scoring in a two-turn allowance here as the 9-5 second choice.

Under Orlando Bocachica, Lightnin Runner pressed the pace before inching away to a 1 ½-length win.

“Before that race I told Orlando [Bocachica] that she didn’t need to be on the lead,” Brown said. “I thought she would be okay sitting just off the leader. He rode her perfect. She showed speed on the first turn and he didn’t rush her up down the backside. She took the lead on her own going into the far turn and she did it pretty nicely. The goal all winter was to bring her back this spring and have her ready for the Original Gold. It would be nice to win it with her.”

Lightnin Runner won last year’s Original Gold, her third career stakes win.

Brown leads Charles Town with 34 wins at the track, five more than nearest pursuer Anthony Farrior. His 5.48 added wins — comparing his total wins to the number of wins the odds of his runners would have predicted — are second-most at the track, trailing only Jeff Runco (7.44).

Brown has also enjoyed a busy and successful start to the season with several older runners, including Golden Key, Hopping Henry and Dream Force. A seven-year-old Uncle Lino gelding, Golden Key has won once in three early outings this year and now owns 13 wins and over $340,000 banked from 36 career tries, a bankroll that is second most among his trainees behind Original Gold.

“It’s not always easy to find the right race for Golden Key or Hopping Henry,” Brown said. “Those allowance races come up pretty tough and they don’t always fill. Golden Key is really fast and he loves the 4 1/2 [furlong] races up here, but he will just not pass a horse. I don’t think he’s ever passed a horse in his life. Wherever he gets away, there’s where he usually finishes.”