CHAD Brown answered the question with another question.

“Preakness good?”

Yeah, Preakness good.

“Well, we knew he was good right away,” Brown said. “I’d say in his second start in the Gotham when he was chasing a fast pace then made another run in the lane, he just never quit. We huddled up and said, ‘This horse is really special and he can go that far, how can we get to the Derby?’”

Cloud Computing didn’t get to the Kentucky Derby but two weeks later he proved that he was, indeed, Preakness good. Owned by Klaravich Stable and William Lawrence, trained by Brown and ridden by Javier Castellano, Cloud Computing found the perfect spot in the second leg of the Triple Crown last Saturday, tracking Derby winner Always Dreaming and Derby fourth Classic Empire.

The two best horses in the Derby, removed from the 20-horse pinball machine of the Derby, locked on each other in a swords-drawn, bullets-hissing, last-man-standing rematch.

Well, the last man standing was Cloud Computing. The dark bay son of Macleans Music hovered three lengths behind the duel (if a horse could cackle, he would have been cackling at his good fortune) through a quarter-mile in 23.16 secs and a half-mile in 46.81 secs.

Leaving the backside, John Velazquez on Always Dreaming did not sneak his patented look under his arm, no, he didn’t need to know who was running because he was retreating. As the Derby winner plummeted (he wound up eighth of 10) Julien Leparoux on Classic Empire pounced, opening up an easy and ambitious three lengths in the middle of the turn.

Classic Empire looked home free, Leparoux thought he was home free, trainer Mark Casse thought he was home free, but Cloud Computing was just starting to rev. The one-time winner began to make up feet, then yards and then lengths, nailing Classic Empire on the line to win by a head.

“We drew it up exactly the way it happened; it rarely happens that way. But it worked to a T,” Brown said. “When I saw the two heavyweights hooking up early out there I figured, one of them is going to give and there will be one of them to run down. This horse ran down a real good horse in Classic Empire, I have a lot of respect for him. I have a lot of respect for the Derby winner, too.”

SIX WEEKS’ REST

A third-place finish in the Wood Memorial, beaten seven lengths by Irish War Cry, crushed the plan for the Derby, but it placed the Preakness square in the shooting gallery. A Chad Brown horse with six weeks’ rest, taking on a Todd Pletcher horse with two weeks’ rest: advantage Brown.

“It just didn’t work out in the Wood. Looking back it was a bit of a speed-biased track that day, he was one of the only horses that closed ground really,” Brown said. “We had time on our side today, six weeks of rest might have made the difference.”

Bred by Hill ‘n’ Dale Equine Holdings and Stretch Run V, Cloud Computing was purchased by Mike Ryan for $200,000 at Keeneland September Sales. Slowed by an injury incurred at Saratoga last summer, the Kentucky-bred won his debut at Aqueduct in February, finished second in the Gotham in his second start and third in the Wood.

If you’re keeping score, that’s four starts over four months, a maiden win and a classic win.

Like always, the next pin was already set up in the alley, minutes after an improbable Preakness win. Brown hadn’t looked past the Preakness.

“The truth is we never thought about the Belmont,” Brown said. “We’ll see how the horse comes out of it, get with the owners, observe the horse. He’ll tell us.”

Brown, who is very good at listening to what his horses tell him, earned his first classic win. Once labeled a turf trainer, that misnomer is long gone.

“The only time it frustrated me a little bit was in recruiting. The top trainers in this sport, it’s like coaching college football or college basketball a little bit. The draft picks, the top picks in high school, they find their way to the top trainers or the top schools,” Brown said. “When I worked (for Bobby Frankel), we had Medaglia d’Oro, we had Empire Maker, I could go on about the dirt horses.

“It’s not like I didn’t watch when they trained and I only watched when the turf horses trained. We have the blueprints. But to get the opportunity to work with the horses was the only frustrating part.

“Luckily I had owners that believe in us, in our team. They’ve sent me horses saying, we know what you guys can do and we trust you. Now it’s paying off for them.”