May 20 2008
Who’s He Run Against?
He hasn’t even won the Triple Crown yet, but the muttering has already started : “Who has Big Brown beaten?”
Well– craploads of other three year old Thoroughbreds, for one. Every single time he’s won. Is this year’s crop of colts underwhelming, or is he really that good?
The measure of this horse doesn’t come necessarily against his competition, but the way he looked after the Preakness. He was prancing and alert, all ears-pricky and ready to go for some post-race ice cream. If Big Brown were in a frat, he would be the one trying to round up a Madden tournament at three in the morning after everybody else was already passed out on the stained shag carpet.
Consider this: Jockey Kent Desormeaux, already thinking of the Belmont at the three-quarters point in the Preakness, astutely held Big Brown back in the stretch. He held him back, people. That means we haven’t seen the bottom of this horse yet.
Big Brown’s winning time, 1:54.80, was slower than last year’s victor, Curlin. But he also took a chunk off of Smarty Jones’ time, and turned in a fleeter effort than Funny Cide did. Same deal with War Emblem and Point Given. Big Brown was faster than Charismatic, Tabasco Cat, and Alysheba. He would have come in behind Secretariat, but then… come on, Secretariat. And remember, Desormeaux wasn’t riding him full-out, either.
Maybe he’ll win the Belmont. Maybe not. Maybe he’ll run as a four year old and fall apart against the likes of Curlin. Maybe not. But in the context of the Preakness, a measure against history leaves Big Brown looking rather pretty.
