Big Brown: A Superhorse?
The UPS Owned Champion Stands Impressively Poised to Win the Triple Crown in 2008
The Kentucky Derby winner took Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland by storm on Saturday May 17, 2008 with another seemingly easy jog to the wire in the 133rd Preakness Stakes, the second leg in the Triple Crown.
"In the beginning, I was scared nuts!" Jockey Kent Desormeaux said. "I thought I was going to have to rein him in." But he didn't. He just sat on the colt's back and let him run it as he wanted. Desormeaux never rocked in the saddle to urge him forward, nor did I see him move his stick from where he held it on the reins. In the end, this proved to be a very good decision. Big Brown strode under the wire 5 ΒΌ lengths ahead of the rest.
As after the Derby, Big Brown was still a fresh horse. He danced and bounced around on the track as if to say "Let's do it again right now!" He showed no signs of even being winded. Former jockey Gary Stevens, now part of the television broadcast crew, said, "We haven't seen the best of Big Brown yet."
There doesn't seem to be another 3 year old, colt or filly, who can even challenge this tall, speedy bundle of dynamic muscle. As Eight Belles in the Derby and now Macho Again, a valiant son of the legendary Holy Bull, have proven, to come in second to this horse is a real accomplishment in itself. Ichabod Crane filled out the places with a Show effort, third place.
As the overhead replay, courtesy of the Snoopy 2 Metlife blimp, looped repeatedly I was struck by Big Brown's shadow on the dirt as he ran as opposed to those of the others. The other horses' strides were serious, business-like, even in some cases a bit laborious. Big Brown appeared to be frolicking. It was as if he were merely out for a happy caper in the paddock! This horse is making the most difficult feat in thoroughbred racing look like a walk in the park. The confident, almost brash, quotability of his trainer and the human interest story of his jockey are a rare but perfect combination that is fast making Big Brown the media's, and consequently the general public's favorite sports star.
It is becoming increasingly clear that he has the speed, the stamina, and the versatility required of a Triple Crown winner. So much so, in fact, that even at this stage in his game, Big Brown remains truly untested, since he has yet to race against another horse who has the ability to at least cause him to sweat. Big Brown has now had 5 career starts, and remains undefeated.
Can Big Brown become the first Triple Crown winner in 30 years? Well, if he can avoid injury, I think yes.
Sources:
national television broadcast of event on NBC
http://www.abc2news.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=2c3f1e94-f7d7-4e4d-b69c-9a6101810519
Published by Sabne Raznik
Sabne Raznik is a poet, book reviewer, and freelance writer. She has been featured in Marquis' Who's Who of American Women and is a member of Cambridge Who's Who, as well as the Academy of American Poets and... View profile
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- national television broadcast of event on NBC
1 Comments
Post a CommentI must make a correction and apologise for the error. Secretariat won the Triple Cown in 1973. It was Seattle Slew who took it in 1977, followed by Affirmed in 1978. Affirmed was the last horse to do so to date. I did mean Secretariat in the article, however, since no horse has ever won it so dramatically, by such large margins. Thus the date should read 1973. I apologise for this unfortunate error. Also, Icabad Crane's name is spelled as it is in this comment and not as written in the article. I assumed, wrongly, that it was spelled as it was for his namesake, the main character in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. But that is not the case. I will endeavor to catch such errors *before* publication in the future.