No challengers from West for Big Brown
Sunday Silence vs. Easy Goer. Real Quiet vs. Victory Gallop. Alysheba vs. Bet Twice. Some of the most compelling Triple Crown chases in the past three decades were classic East vs. West confrontations, the best being the last time the Triple Crown was swept, 30 years ago, when Affirmed beat Alydar in three straight thrillers.
This year, however, the best horses from the West have hightailed it back to California, leaving the 140th Belmont Stakes on June 7 - in which Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown will attempt to become the 12th Triple Crown winner - a match between the East (Big Brown) and the Far East (Casino Drive).
A little more than three weeks ago, conventional wisdom held that the California-based 3-year-olds were a formidable group. Form of the California runners had held up well through the spring. Sierra Sunset left California and won the Rebel Stakes, then Gayego invaded Oaklawn and won the Arkansas Derby. Colonel John ran so well in the Santa Anita Derby that he was sent off as the second choice to Big Brown in the Kentucky Derby.
In the Derby, though, Colonel John finished sixth, Bob Black Jack - the Santa Anita Derby runner-up - was 16th, and Gayego finished 17th in the field of 20. Only Gayego went on to the Preakness, where he finished 11th in a field of 12.
None of them is going on to the Belmont, nor are any new shooters - like El Gato Malo, the Lone Star Derby winner - diving in. All the horses currently certain for the Belmont - Anak Nakal, Big Brown, Casino Drive, Denis of Cork, Macho Again, Icabad Crane, Tale of Ekati, and Tomcito - have never raced in California. The only possible Belmont runner with any California connection is Lexington Stakes winner Behindatthebar, who was based in California during the winter, but his status is questionable after being withdrawn from the Preakness with a bruised foot.
Colonel John was unquestionably the most accomplished Derby runner based in California, but he took the first off-ramp from the Triple Crown trail. After a post-Derby freshening in Lexington, Ky., at the WinStar Farm of Bill Casner and Kenny Troutt, where he was born and raised, Colonel John only days ago returned to Santa Anita. His trainer, Eoin Harty, on Friday said the Grade 2, $350,000 Swaps Stakes on July 12 at Hollywood Park is the next target for Colonel John, followed by the Grade 1, $1 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 23.
The 1 1/2-mile Belmont, Harty said, "was never part of the equation" following the Derby, in which Colonel John was beaten 14 1/4 lengths after getting bumped solidly at the start, then racing wide on the final turn.
"It's a mile and a half, and I'm not sure my horse wants to go a mile and a half," Harty said from Keeneland, where he was overseeing the runners he has there. "It's not like we were an unlucky second or third in the Derby. He was well-beaten, and he had a rough trip. We came up with an alternative game plan."
The first part of that plan was some downtime at WinStar.
"He did some swimming and a little bit of light training," Harty said. "He ate a lot of grass. He got turned out in a small pen. He got to be a kid again. WinStar is so close to Churchill, it was a good opportunity to give him a rest."
The second part of that plan involved looking at Colonel John's career from a long-term prospective. Harty has always maintained that Colonel John, because he is light-framed, is best with plenty of time between starts. The Swaps is 10 weeks after the Derby, and then the Travers comes another six weeks later.
"Looking at the horse's future, we felt it was best to get him back to California, back on a synthetic track, get him ready for the Swaps, and then try Big Brown again in the Travers," Harty said.
Harty said the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth on Aug. 3 was ruled out "because of the timing in comparison to the Travers."
Harty said he "can't envision anyone beating Big Brown" in the Belmont.
Neither, apparently, can anyone else from California.
In other Belmont developments Friday:
* After visiting the Belmont Park paddock for the first time, Big Brown galloped once around Belmont's 1 1/2-mile oval shortly after 5:30 a.m. Regular exercise rider Michelle Nevin was aboard. As he usually does, Big Brown galloped with bell boots on his front feet.
"I don't want him to grab his quarter," trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. said. "He went good."
* At 6:30 a.m., Peter Pan winner Casino Drive also galloped once around Belmont's main track, a longer move than usual, racing manager Nobutaka Tada said.
Casino Drive goes out with his stablemates Spark Candle and Champagne Squall. Prior to galloping, the three walk the barn area for 30 to 40 minutes. After the gallop, the trio walk the barn area for an hour.
"We warm them up and then we cool them down," Tada said. "Circulation, muscles, tendons - it's good for everything."
Tada said an announcement on who will ride Casino Drive would most likely be made Monday. The leading candidates are Edgar Prado and Japanese jockey Yutaka Take.
(c)2008 ESPN Internet Ventures.
Death of Eight Belles clouds Big Brown's Kentucky Derby win
Well, so much for inexperience, the 20 post and sore feet. With one sweeping move at the three-eighths pole, Big Brown dispatched all of those obstacles en route to a lopsided victory in the Kentucky Derby, setting the stage for what may be an historic Triple Crown run.
But the Derby favorite's brilliant performance was overshadowed by the fatal injury to runner-up Eight Belles and the disastrous black eye horse racing received on its biggest day.
The initiated will move on to the Preakness and what's in store for Big Brown as he attempts to become the first horse since Affirmed in 1978 to win all three legs of the Triple Crown. But the public that tunes into horse racing only for marquee events, who might've followed the run for the elusive crown by a potential super horse, will likely skip it.
Too much, once again, of racing's darker side.
Now the debate shifts from the use of synthetic vs. natural dirt courses, to the overuse of medication, to whether jockey Gabriel Saez should be penalized for what some -- like PETA -- see as his part in the filly's demise.
The sport is again the loser for the casual fan. With fatalities in two of the last six Triple Crown races -- also including Barbaro in the 2006 Preakness -- racing is now too difficult to watch for many.
Instead of discussing what Derby rivals, if any, Big Brown will face in Baltimore in two weeks, the media will fuel concerns over the sport's so-called cruel and inhumane treatment of its stars. It'll perpetuate discussions of altering some of its fundamentals -- such as racing at age two and having a five-week Triple Crown series -- rather than on the contributing causes of breakdowns and injuries.
Eight Belles was physically strong -- possibly even stronger -- than many of her male opponents on Saturday. What happened was one of the freakiest of accidents ever seen on a racetrack. The on-call veterinarians, who have witnessed thousands of races, had never seen one like it.
Big Brown has problem hooves and wears special bar shoes filled with polyurethane padding to withstand the impact of hard surfaces. Trainer Rick Dutrow would never have considered running Saturday on Churchill Downs' hard natural dirt surface if he thought there was any chance of it causing an injury or even if it compromised his horse's chances.
Dutrow was the first to admit immediately after the Derby that it will be difficult to get Big Brown in the same top condition in just two weeks for the Preakness, after preparing for and then running the toughest race of his life in Kentucky. Once based in Maryland, Dutrow knows that the Pimlico surface is even harder than Churchill's and could be the bay colt's biggest obstacle no matter who he faces.
While trainers and owners decide how to best handle their own horses, there must continue to be an industry-wide discussion on how to protect the soundness of thoroughbreds and prevent injuries with the use of medications and artificial surfaces.
A discussion of the trend to breed for speed, perhaps at the expense of durability, in order to get the highest price at thoroughbred auctions, must also be included in that debate.
Those are the real issues facing racing officials, track management and horsemen. They should be examining them. To a certain extent, they have and are. Not quickly enough, however, to satisfy a very concerned public.
Maybe Big Brown's quest to become the twelfth Triple Crown champion ever and the first in 30 years will afford the sport the opportunity to turn its ill-gotten attention into a rallying cry for its betterment, with a more serious and sustained approach to addressing its problems, both actual and perceived.
If it doesn't, the sport of pari-mutuel (among ourselves) wagering could become just a pari-mutuel affair.
(c) 2008 SportingNews.com
Philadelphia carousel gets replicas of 2 winning race horses
PHILADELPHIA- Philadelphia carousel now features replicas of two local greats in the horse racing world.
Replicas of Afleet Alex, the winner of the Preakness and Belmont Stakes, and Smarty Jones, the winner of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes, have been added to the Philadelphia Park Liberty Carousel in Franklin Square.
President and CEO Amy Needle of Historic Philadelphia says the horses were made for the carousel by a carousel-making company in Wichita, Kan.
Needle says the company worked from photographs of the horses and painted the replicas with the colors and numbers worn by the two horses.
Each costs $30,000.
Copyright (c)2008 InYork.com.
Colonel John leads in impressive Kentucky Derby prep race
Colonel John's performance at the Santa Anita this year has been nothing short of impressive.
In a recent online poll asking voters to rate the Derby prep race that impressed them the most, the Gr. 1 Florida Derby, dominated by Big Brown and Colonel John's workmanlike victory in the prestigious Gr. 1 Santa Anita Derby, finished several lengths in front.
This result offers horseplayers an interesting angle, with the looming East-West rivalry developing between the two talented colts bringing back memories of what racing fans consider the most exciting Triple Crown of all time.
Coincidently, it was exactly 30 years ago in 1978 that the greatest rivalry in North American racing played out in the Triple Crown. Alydar, pride of the traditional Eastern racing establishment and Affirmed, who carried the hopes of the free-spirited West Coast to Kentucky, were arch rivals throughout their racing careers.
Alydar won the Florida Derby on his way to Louisville and Affirmed, like Colonel John, came via a triumph in the Santa Anita Derby. Alydar had a stalking style while Affirmed was a speed horse. In this year's matchup, Eastern invader Big Brown possesses the speed and Colonel John will do the stalking.
The Affirmed vs. Alydar rivalry drew record crowds from both coasts to the 1978 Triple Crown, and their performances remain etched in the minds of racing fans who attended the historic event.
Affirmed's Derby and Preakness wins over Alydar followed by a gut-wrenching win over his rival in the Belmont Stakes will never been forgotten. Affirmed became the 11th and most recent Triple Crown winner, and Alydar holds the distinction as the only horse to finish second in all three races.
Let's hope Big Brown vs. Colonel John can ignite the racing world like their contemporaries did in 1978.
(c) 2004-2006 Web Game Consultants N.V.
Derby field beginning to take shape
ARCADIA, Calif. - The winners of the three major Kentucky Derby prep races last Saturday will continue to Churchill Downs for the Derby on May 3, but the situation is uncertain for those who chased them, in many cases because of either questionable performances or the critical factor of earnings in graded stakes races.
Colonel John, who won the Santa Anita Derby, will remain in California for the next 2 1/2 weeks before leaving for Kentucky, trainer Eoin Harty said. Recapturetheglory, who led from start to finish in the Illinois Derby, will get to Kentucky just as soon as his trainer and co-owner, Louis Roussel, can get there to meet him. Tale of Ekati, the Wood Memorial winner, was sent to Kentucky on Sunday along with War Pass and Court Vision, who finished second and third, respectively, in the Wood.
Of the three winners, Recapturetheglory got the best Beyer Speed Figure, a 102. Colonel John got a 95, and Tale of Ekati a 93.
Colonel John finished furiously to win the Santa Anita Derby after getting bottled up in traffic on the turn.
"I can't believe the horse won," Harty said. "I thought he had so much to do. When [El Gato Malo] went by him, it looked like he wasn't firing. At that point, I would have been content to be third. How he did it, I don't know. I thought it was a phenomenal race.
"When he accelerates, he just lengthens his stride. Some horses drop their heads down when they accelerate. His stride gets longer."
Colonel John will work twice at Santa Anita before leaving for Kentucky about 10 days before the Derby. He will have his final work at Churchill Downs, Harty said.
Bob Black Jack, who was second in the Santa Anita Derby, is on the bubble for the race, in large part because that's where he may end up in terms of earnings in graded stakes races. If more than 20 horses enter the Derby, as seems a certainty this year, the tiebreaker is earnings in graded stakes races.
With the fillies Eight Belles and Proud Spell headed to the Kentucky Oaks on May 2, and Kodiak Kowboy sticking to sprints, several horses with rich bankrolls are off the list. But Bob Black Jack still could be leapfrogged by horses currently below him who are racing this Saturday in the Grade 2, $1 million Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park and the Grade 1, $750,000 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland.
"We're thinking about the Derby a little bit," James Kasparoff, the trainer of Bob Black Jack, said Monday. "You can build a case that he belongs, but it's a tough race to win. We'll see where he stands on earnings after this weekend, too. I wouldn't even go back there unless I was sure he could get in. But everything's still up in the air. If he's not doing exactly what we want, he won't go."
David Hofmans, the trainer of third-place finisher Coast Guard, already has decided he won't go.
"We'll stay home and look for something at Hollywood," Hofmans said.
Yankee Bravo, who was fourth, likely did not make enough money to get into the Derby anyway.
"It seemed like he made his run and didn't go on with it," trainer Paddy Gallagher said.
El Gato Malo, who was fifth as the favorite in the Santa Anita Derby, remains a possibility to go to Kentucky, though he is in a precarious position with graded stakes earnings. His connections are mystified by his performance. His jockey, David Flores, said after the race that he thought El Gato Malo might have bled. But a postrace exam showed that did not happen, trainer Craig Dollase said Monday.
The Wood's first three finishers are all, at this point, headed to the Derby.
Tale of Ekati will train at Keeneland until just before the Derby, trainer Barclay Tagg said.
"I've always thought he was a very good horse," Tagg said. "We've always had some trouble with him at the gate, but I think we got that ironed out a week before the race. He ran like I expected him to run the time before but didn't, but at least he got enough out of that race to run like he did."
War Pass and Court Vision are already at Churchill Downs.
Court Vision ran "a good, solid race without being earth-shattering," said trainer Bill Mott, who said jockey Garrett Gomez told him Court Vision did not handle the Aqueduct track and slipped a couple of times.
Richard Schosberg, the trainer of fourth-place finisher Giant Moon, said he would point for the May 17 Preakness, but was keeping the Derby open as an option in case of prominent defections. However, he is far down the graded stakes earnings list.
Recapturetheglory's Illinois Derby victory put him in the Kentucky Derby, justifying the $6,000 Roussel paid to make him a late Triple Crown nominee just before the March 27 deadline.
Roussel said Recapturetheglory would have two works at Churchill prior to the Derby.
"I think he's improving immensely," Roussel said. "I saw him improving a great deal at Fair Grounds. His third race back, the Derby, I think it probably will be his best race."
Golden Spikes, who was second in the Illinois Derby, needs some defections from those above him on the graded stakes earnings list to get into the Derby. That's not a problem for third-place finisher Z Humor. Atoned, who was fourth, is above Golden Spikes but still in a precarious position in terms of earnings. Denis of Cork is in a better spot in terms of earnings, but is coming off his worst performance, a fifth-place finish that, if he goes in the Derby, will be his lone start between Feb. 18 and May 3.
The Derby picture will change further this weekend. A full field of 14 is expected for the Arkansas Derby, which has a first prize of $600,000. Blackberry Road, Gayego, Indian Sun, King's Silver Son, Liberty Bull, and ZoFortune are among the prominent 3-year-olds expected for that race, and all are in need of graded stakes cash.
The Blue Grass has better quality, with Pyro heading a field also expected to include Cool Coal Man and Visionaire, but the top contenders in that race are in a better position in terms of graded stakes earnings. It will, however, be a crucial race for horses like Cowboy Cal and Miner's Claim.
And at Gulfstream, Hey Byrn is expected to head the field in the Grade 3, $150,000 Holy Bull Stakes on Saturday. Even with a win, though, the purse money in that race is unlikely to be sufficient to get a horse into the top 20 in graded earnings.
Also of interest this weekend will be an expected workout at Churchill Downs by Lane's End Stakes winner Adriano. That work, trainer Graham Motion said, would be used as a gauge to see if he likes the track and should run in the Derby, or instead remain on Polytrack in the Grade 2, $325,000 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland on April 19. Motion said Adriano was unlikely to run in both races.
(c) 2008 Fox Sports Interactive Media, LLC. All rights reserved.
Big Brown Sparks Big-Time Hype
No one in racing would ever call trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. conservative or politically correct. Audacious and impertinent are more likely for the in-your-face New York horseman with a genius for finding the winner's circle with low-level claimers and champions alike.
Big Brown, by far the most hyped horse of the Triple Crown prep season, is a perfect fit for Dutrow -- ridiculously gifted and defying all comers to say he can't win the Grade I $1 million Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park this afternoon off just two career starts.
The dashing bay colt has been making noise since before Dutrow even got ahold of him, electrifying the crowd on closing day of the Saratoga meet last summer by winning his debut on the grass by 11 1/4 lengths.
The powerful racing investment syndicate IEAH Stables immediately paid a seven-figure sum for three-quarters ownership of Big Brown and turned him over to Dutrow, but quarter cracks in both front hooves kept the horse sidelined until early this month.
His return to the races, however, was nothing less than scintillating: With jockey Kent Desormeaux aboard, Big Brown mesmerized in a one-turn mile allowance race March 5 at Gulfstream Park, winning by 12 3/4 lengths.
True, there were only four other horses in the field, and the race originally had been scheduled for the turf, but the Beyer Speed Figure of 104 is the best turned in by a 3-year-old in a route race this year.
Dutrow had unleashed a monster, and the monster unleashed Dutrow.
"You would have to get excited being around a horse like Big Brown because of what races he can take you to," Dutrow, 48, said Tuesday after Big Brown breezed five furlongs in 59 1/5 seconds at Palm Meadows, the fastest of 42 works that day at the distance. "I've got two horses in [yesterday], one for $18,000 on the grass and the other for $25,000."
Eleven other Triple Crown hopefuls will line up in the Florida Derby, but all of them together haven't received the attention paid to Big Brown.
Even though he drew the outside post position, a virtual death sentence in 1 1/8 -mile races at Gulfstream Park, Big Brown has been made the 3-1 morning-line favorite by track linemaker Chuck Streva. No horse who has started out of post positions Nos. 11 or 12 at Gulfstream have won at the Florida Derby distance in the past four years, yet Dutrow does not appear to care.
"Look, I wish he was outside in a seven-horse field, but we're going to take it," he told the Daily Racing Form. "We're not going to cry. We get to play the intimidator from out there, instead of being intimidated. We are ready, babe."
If actions speak louder than words, Dutrow's moxie must be respected even more. The trainer is running two horses this afternoon in Dubai in the richest race card in the world -- including favorite Benny the Bull in the $2 million Golden Shaheen sprint -- yet chose to remain in Florida.
Desormeaux, a Hall of Fame jockey, could have ridden the top-flight Premium Tap in the $6 million Dubai World Cup, but also elected to stay with Big Brown.
Off riding a single allowance win, Desormeaux already has compared Big Brown to the best horses he's ever been on.
"Wherever Big Brown goes, I want to go with him," said Desormeaux, who also rides Derby hopefuls Cool Coal Man and Georgie Boy. "The reality is I think this is a special horse. If you stick me in a corner and ask me if I would rather win the Kentucky Derby or a $6 million purse, I'd say the Kentucky Derby.
"His stride has a great fluidity. This morning, breezing him around the racetrack, where most race horses have to belly down and give up the blood to get the times he's getting, he's like a deer bounding through the meadow. He's just out for a gallop."
The only member of the Big Brown team tempering his enthusiasm is IEAH President Mike Iavarone.
"He's beaten nothing," he said of Big Brown's exploits, "and I hope he beats nothing next time."
By no means, however, does Iavarone believe Dutrow is reaching too far, too fast by aiming for greatness.
"The horse tells him what to do," Iavarone said.
(c) 2008 The Washington Post Company
Horse racing, like life, has no sure things
Quite often in sports, we make the mistake in believing heavily in inevitability.
One only has to think back to this year's Super Bowl, when the New England Patriots were thought to be unbeatable, only to lose to the New York Giants.
The cities were the same, with an opposing outcome that is still rather unbelievable when the 2004 Boston Red Sox rallied from three games down to defeat the New York Yankees in the American League Championship series.
Two examples in sports where inevitability didn't come true.
Horse racing is not immune from such unbelievable results, one only has to look at last week's Tampa Bay Derby to see why.
The 2007 two-year-old champion, the undefeated and basically unchallenged War Pass, met six challengers who on paper gave little indication that any of them were capable of surmounting much of a challenge to the three-year-old superstar.
The thing that many race fans forget is that horses are not just bold print names appearing above agate print information in the racing form. Horses are living breathing animals that sometimes don't feel up to par on certain days. They are not machines.
Last Saturday, War Pass, favored at 1-20 odds (the lowest odds you can receive), looked very unmachinelike. War Pass struggled out of the starting gate, didn't have his usual precision like gait and finally lumbered to a last place finish 23 lengths behind the machinelike named winner, Big Truck.
The horses weren't even back and unsaddled before stock in War Pass futures had dwindled to the worth of Bear Stearns stock. Previous backers were asking not if Nick Zito's colt would rebound and still win the Kentucky Derby, but if he would ever run again.
Zito reported on Sunday that nothing appeared to be physically wrong with War Pass. He did say that his young colt had had a slight fever earlier in the week, but much to the veteran trainer's credit he didn't use this as an excuse. He just said he was simply mystified as to why he ran so poorly.
As a father and a handicapper, one thing I've learned about three-year-olds is that, be they human or equine, is that they are not only unpredictable, but also very resilient.
During March Madness, one only has to think of the late great Jim Valvano's words before his North Carolina State team defeated heavily favored Houston for the national championship. "Sure we have a chance," Valvano said. "There are only two teams left playing."
There are more than two horses left in the Triple Crown, but War Pass has proven on the racetrack that he is quite capable of scoring big wins. He's too talented and Zito is too good of a horseman to write off their Derby chances just yet.
Copyright The Grand Island Independent
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