Big Brown's win in the Haskell, and his future
DiscreetCat
Moderator
Someone on my forum asked for my impressions of Big Brown's win in the Haskell last weekend. Thought i'd post it here as well:
Strange race. I thought Big Brown was dead on the turn. I thought his career was over. But he was able to dig deep within himself and just keep grinding away, and he eventually got there. That showed a lot of guts and determination, qualities that are extremely important in a racehorse. You have to give him kudos for that. The final time of 1:48 1/5 was also not too bad. But overall, i wasn't impressed. He looked completely off-form to me, as there's now way on Earth that a horse with Big Brown'sd talent should be struggling on the turn like that, particularly when he had been racing in the clear with no trouble to speak of. I read somewhere (after the race) that Coal Play was "lone speed", and it's very hard to run down lone speed @ Monmouth. Since when has anyone opposing Big Brown been the "lone speed" however??? Especially when you consider that Desormeaux was under instructions to just let the horse roll (confirmed by Dutrow in a tv interview right before the race). I would agree that Coal Play was rushed to the front, and Big Brown was in a bit of a tight spot early as a result and had to taken back a bit, and that was clearly the preferable course of action by Desormeaux. But Big Brown was in perfect stalking position pretty much the entire way, and he simply couldn't make an impact on the leader when called upon (compared to how easily he had done it in the Derby and Preakness). That has to be considered a MAJOR negative. Perhaps his feet are botherring him a bit; you'll notice that his final pre-Haskell workout came on grass. But it's hard to imagine they would run him at less than 100%. My best guess would be that they simply squeezed the lemon dry in the Derby and Preakness. Perhaps Big Brown needs a long break (which he won't get), and perhaps he'll just never be the same. In any case, if he runs the way he ran in the Haskell while facing higher-level horses (such as Curlin or whomever), he'll get clobbered. Certainly, it's possible he could bounce back, but two straight bad efforts (even when one of then is a Haskell win) leave me rather doubtful of that. Personally, i think he may have run his last race. I think his connections would much prefer to retire Big Brown when he's coming off a Grade 1 win, as opposed to a potential thrashing in his first try against older horses. The fact that they're passing on the Travers says quite a lot, i think. That's a major race as far as breeding value goes, and i'm sure they would've pointed at the Travers if they thought he could win it. I think you can probably stick a fork in Big Brown. We'll see.
Strange race. I thought Big Brown was dead on the turn. I thought his career was over. But he was able to dig deep within himself and just keep grinding away, and he eventually got there. That showed a lot of guts and determination, qualities that are extremely important in a racehorse. You have to give him kudos for that. The final time of 1:48 1/5 was also not too bad. But overall, i wasn't impressed. He looked completely off-form to me, as there's now way on Earth that a horse with Big Brown'sd talent should be struggling on the turn like that, particularly when he had been racing in the clear with no trouble to speak of. I read somewhere (after the race) that Coal Play was "lone speed", and it's very hard to run down lone speed @ Monmouth. Since when has anyone opposing Big Brown been the "lone speed" however??? Especially when you consider that Desormeaux was under instructions to just let the horse roll (confirmed by Dutrow in a tv interview right before the race). I would agree that Coal Play was rushed to the front, and Big Brown was in a bit of a tight spot early as a result and had to taken back a bit, and that was clearly the preferable course of action by Desormeaux. But Big Brown was in perfect stalking position pretty much the entire way, and he simply couldn't make an impact on the leader when called upon (compared to how easily he had done it in the Derby and Preakness). That has to be considered a MAJOR negative. Perhaps his feet are botherring him a bit; you'll notice that his final pre-Haskell workout came on grass. But it's hard to imagine they would run him at less than 100%. My best guess would be that they simply squeezed the lemon dry in the Derby and Preakness. Perhaps Big Brown needs a long break (which he won't get), and perhaps he'll just never be the same. In any case, if he runs the way he ran in the Haskell while facing higher-level horses (such as Curlin or whomever), he'll get clobbered. Certainly, it's possible he could bounce back, but two straight bad efforts (even when one of then is a Haskell win) leave me rather doubtful of that. Personally, i think he may have run his last race. I think his connections would much prefer to retire Big Brown when he's coming off a Grade 1 win, as opposed to a potential thrashing in his first try against older horses. The fact that they're passing on the Travers says quite a lot, i think. That's a major race as far as breeding value goes, and i'm sure they would've pointed at the Travers if they thought he could win it. I think you can probably stick a fork in Big Brown. We'll see.