Pulling Punches for a New Career
Brown Says He's Focused on Being A Jockey Agent

By John Scheinman
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, May 14, 2007

J.D. Brown insists the undercard of the Jimmy Lange-Fontaine Cabell rematch Saturday night at Patriot Center was the swan song of his long career as a boxing matchmaker. Working as a full-time jockey agent for two riders at Pimlico and Laurel Park more than fulfills his minimum daily requirement for action, and the longtime right-hand man to Sugar Ray Leonard has decided to try and let the fight game go.

Yet two days before the show on the campus of George Mason University, Brown, who says he is "60ish" and lives with his wife in Camp Springs, didn't appear to have let his peers in on the decision. He sat down with a reporter to talk about his career and his cellphone rang -- Baltimore boxing promoter Jake Smith calling to talk about fighters for his upcoming card. A couple of minutes later, Eric Bottjer, another matchmaker, called hoping Brown knew a boxer good enough to fill a main event bout on ESPN on short notice. Then yet another call, this time from Brian Bishop, who handled public relations for Lange-Cabell.

This didn't look like retirement.

"I still get calls, but as far as doing it anymore . . . I love horse racing, the competitiveness of it," Brown said. "Boxing is not like it used to be. Back in the heyday, the '80s and early '90s, guys would fight anybody. Now, it's hard getting guys to fight. Now, the promoters have all these medicals to deal with. You have last-minute pullouts, and you don't have guys that take fights at the last minute like you used to."

At "60ish," Brown also can't surf the kinetic wave of big-time boxing like he did as a younger man. When riding high with Leonard, who blew out of Palmer Park to become one of the greatest, most electrifying fighters boxing has ever known, Brown cut a dashing figure whenever the Sugar Ray caravan hit the road. He wore impeccable pinstripe suits with a fresh handkerchief in the breast pocket and had an athlete's build from his days as an all-conference outfielder at Howard University and with the Washington Black Sox amateur team. Good looks help today's idols, such as Oscar De La Hoya, and, on a local level, Lange and Brown, float above the fight crowd as Leonard was able to do.

"It was a great ride working with Ray Leonard," Brown said. "I got to go to some of the greatest places. We flew in private jets. The groupies came calling, and if we didn't keep control of it, we'd wind up like Mike Tyson.

"At the time, Ray was Ray. He was having fun. We would travel all over the world doing things. The road life is much different now. Ray's 50 years old. Back then, Ray could sleep for 15 minutes, and he'd be ready to go."

These days, Brown is up at 5 a.m. and at the track by 6 to watch morning workouts and see which horses look ready to fire in the afternoon.

He makes the rounds of the barns at Pimlico, Laurel Park and the Bowie Training Center, shooting the breeze with trainers, offering the services of his riders Carlos Quinones and Nick Santagata for workouts in hope of securing mounts for them in the races, including ones on the rich programs Friday and Saturday for Black-Eyed Susan Day and the Preakness Stakes.

Brown, who grew up in Washington, is the only black jockey agent on the backstretch, but his immersion in the job has appeared easy.

"His background in boxing has really helped him in this sport," said Steve Rushing, the top agent in the region, who guides the careers of Ramon Dominguez and Anna Rose Napravnik. "Managing a fighter is probably a lot like managing a young rider, molding their careers, having a plan. Promoting is the same thing. He has the background for that. He's very good with people, and everyone likes him."

"It's a specialty to have that type of ability," Leonard said. "J.D. blends in. He becomes like your pal, your acquaintance and your business partner. But he's not too slick. I think he's like a chameleon, from a positive aspect."

Maryland racetrack people also have known Brown for a long time. His father, Hayes, who died in 2000, was one of the few black trainers in the state from the early 1950s until the '70s, working the old circuit when there were tracks in Bowie, Upper Marlboro, Cumberland and Bel Air. Hayes Brown went on to become a clocker, patrol judge and then stable manager at Laurel for 20 years.

When Brown's mother died in 1996, he saw his father slide into depression, moping around the house, until one day he looked at his son and said, "We should buy a horse."

By that time, Leonard had retired from boxing after losing to Terry Norris in 1991, but Brown had continued to work as vice president of Sugar Ray Leonard Productions, while matchmaking, promoting and managing fighters. In 1990, he put together the card for the Evander Holyfield-Buster Douglas fight. Two years later, he signed future middleweight champion William Joppy to a contract after the fighter lost in the final of the Olympic trials. Working with his old Black Sox teammate Rock Newman, Brown helped launch the career of heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe.

He also continued his work as director of youth employment for the District government's summer jobs program, while putting together fight cards around the region, including the famous Fight Night for Children charity show each October at the Hilton on Connecticut Avenue.

Brown and his father had a good run with the horses, including striking gold with a claimer named Testifly, who turned into a blazing beast and won a slew of stakes races and more than $500,000.

Even after his father died, Brown kept hanging around the track.

One day, after Joppy lost his title to Bernard Hopkins and then got beat by Jermain Taylor in 2004, Brown was sitting on the rail outside Donovan Houghton's barn with the top trainer Eddie Gaudet.

"I told Eddie how disappointed I was in the [Taylor] fight and how I was tired of going out on the road, and he said out of the blue, 'You should be an agent. It's selling things just like fights. And I have just the guy for you,' and it was Richard Monterrey."

With the help of Houghton and Gaudet, Monterrey took off. "I was putting him on horses that were 25-1, 30-1, and he was winning," Brown said.

Gaudet, 76, grew up in Massachusetts, a boyhood friend of Rocky Marciano. He also knew Hayes Brown and liked the son just as well. "He always got my respect."

Monterrey helped establish Brown's credentials on the backstretch, and when the rider moved on, the agent picked up new jockeys. These days, Brown works with the 21-year-old apprentice Quinones, who ranks sixth in the Pimlico standings, and the veteran Santagata.

Joppy is trying to make a comeback, and Brown said he will stick with him, but after that, he's through with boxing. His only connection, he promises, will be still going around with Leonard, who for the past six years has been a top draw on the motivational speaking circuit.

Now living in Los Angeles, Leonard said he could hardly believe it when Brown told him he was getting out of boxing.

"It was somewhat hard to digest," Leonard said. "It's in his blood. I found it not to be real. I think he has too much knowledge to keep to himself. He'll keep doing like I did in my career -- keep coming back."