BIG BROWN WIRES ‘EM
Big Brown went to the lead at the start and never looked back in winning Saturday’s 1 1/8-mile Monmouth Stakes, a $500,000 turf race designed by Monmouth Park for the two-time classic winner. The Rick Dutrow-trained colt, sent off the 3-5 favorite, opened a clear lead down the backstretch, then held off a determined stretch run from second choice Proudinsky to win by a neck in 1:47.41 on a turf course rated good. Shakis circled the field to be a fast-closing third, another half-length back.
The Monmouth was Big Brown’s first race agaist older horses, and he was the only 3-year-old in the nine-horse field, carrying 120 pounds, one more than the 5-year-old German-bred Proudinsky.
"Couldn’t have been better," said Michael Iavarone, who manages the IEAH Stables that owns Big Brown in partnership with Paul Pompa Jr. Big Brown used the Monmouth race as a prep for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Kent Desormeaux rode Big Brown confidently, rating him on the lead and in the clear down the backstretch and around the far turn after getting a modest early challenge from longshot Get Serious, who was hustled up to engage Big Brown in the run to the first turn. Proudinsky tracked Big Brown into the stretch and moved up to engage him inside the furlong pole, but was never able to seriously challenge the winner, who was under a hand ride down the stretch and got only a few under-handed taps on the right shoulder from Desormeaux’s whip, Fractions of the race were : :23.46, :46.83, 1:11.21, and 1:35.39. The final time of 1:47.41 gave Big Brown a final eighth in a snappy 12.02 seconds.
Big Brown was making his first start on grass since breaking his maiden by 12 ¾ lengths going 1 1/16 miles on the Saratoga turf in his career debut Sept. 3, which turned out to be his only start as a 2-year-old. He was trained then by Pat Reynolds, who picked him out of the Keeneland April 2-year-olds in training sale, where he was purchased by Paul Pompa Jr. for $190,000.
After Big Brown’s maiden win, IEAH Stables purchased a 75% interest in the colt and turned him over to Dutrow, who handles most of IEAH’s runners. It was expected he would run in the Pilgrim Stakes on grass, followed by the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, but a quarter crack sidelined him for several months.
Big Brown returned to win a March 5 allowance race at a mile on the Gulfstream Park dirt after the race was taken off turf, and, with the exception of a series of grass workouts, it’s been dirt ever since for the son of Boundary out of Mien, by Nureyev. He won the Florida Derby, Kentucky Derby and Preakness before losing his bid for the Triple Crown while being eased in the Belmont Stakes. He came back to win the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park Aug. 3 and is using the Monmouth race as a prep for the Breeders’ Cup Classic on the new Pro-Ride synthetic track at Santa Anita Oct. 25.
The win at Monmouth was Big Brown’s seventh in eight starts. He was bred in Kentucky by Gary Knapp’s Monticule Farm. Big Brown paid $3.20 to win. Big Brown will retire at the end of the year to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Clay’s Three Chimneys Farm to stand the 2009 breeding season. Three Chimneys reportedly purchased a 10% interest in the colt midway through the Triple Crown. At that time, the colt’s value was estimated at $50 million.
Visit the Paulick Report for all the latest news throughout the racing world.
Sign up for our
Email Flashes to get the latest news, analysis and commentary from Ray PaulickTags: belmont, Big Brown, boundary, gary knapp, IEAH, keeneland 2-year-old sale, kentucky derby, mien, monmouth park, monmouth stakes, monticule, pat reynolds, paul pompa jr., preakness, rick dutrow, Triple Crown
September 13th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Did Dutrow indicate whether BB was running on steroids today? Jersey still hasn’t come on board and by doing so they continue to suck whatever life is left out of the racing public.
September 13th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Mr. Paulick,
Thanks for this–quickest, most complete report I found on the ‘net’–no TVG, etc. here.
September 13th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Three things: Why are his two front feet so yellowish in color? Is he running with patches?
He’s still throwing his head when Kent D tries to restrain him. When Get Serious moves up to engage, BB throws his head. It was fortunate for them that Get Serious blew the turn.
What was with the funky lead change at the top of the stretch? He was almost weaving.
September 13th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Boundary had terrible feet. Big Brown seems to have inherited them.
September 13th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Big Brown at Monmouth Notes…
Arrived at @ 12:15 pm; the anticipated mob wasn’t there.
17,047 fans did eventually show up (mostly after Race Six).
While that does rank as a great day for Monmouth, compared to an average September weekend gate - & the total handle of just under six million bucks was impressive - it was hardly a replay of Haskell Day.
Thank God! Monmouth didn’t bother to hire extra workers for their concession stands, etc. Everything about the facility uniformly reeked of half-hearted effort & who cares.
Typical: The idiotically-conceived, pygmy-sized sign at the front gate that announced that “Big Brown Is Back!” “Big Brown,” in black, was visible. But the illegible, pale yellow lettering used for “Is Back” was obliterated by the sunlight.
We came for a day, & stayed for what felt like a year. Turf fields prior to the Monmouth Stakes were wiped out with scratches (due to the previous day’s rain, an unwelcome reminder of the 2007 Breeders’-Cup-at-Monmouth fiasco). And most of the originally-intended-for-dirt race fields were anemic in size, to boot.
But no one thought it would be a good idea to speed up the pace & get the horses in the meaningless races into the gates as soon as possible. Race 3 had a six-horse field; Race 4 had five; & Race 7 also had five runners. BORING.
Race Six was named the Domalewski Derby. Really.
Eventually, there were about 2,000 fans thronged throughout the paddock area, awaiting the pre-race saddling of Big Brown. So were 4,000 gnats! In 100+ trips to Monmouth, this has never been seen. An immediate retreat to our seats ensued.
The talents of Big Brown’s opponents - with the exception of Proudinsky - had been grossly exaggerated, as it turned out. But nothing can detract from the stellar show he put on. By all rights, at the top of the stretch, at least four of the turf specialists should have gone right on by The Dirtmeister.
No such thing occurred. And when he persisted & would not be bested, the aura of good feeling & gratification among the fans was overwhelmingly contagious.
It was, as the saying goes, all about the horse - so much so that even this old long-shot addicted curmudgeon got into the spirit, forgot about his losing bets & the Belmont Sakes disgrace, & appreciatively applauded the winning favorite.
You could not have ended a Monmouth season on a more unusually rare or better note.
September 14th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Don Reed
Thanks for the on-the-ground, color commentary. A nice complement to race results. Interesting that our two current mega-stars could only draw approximately 20K fans at Saratoga and Monmouth, respectively, in most recent appearances. No matter how you cut it, not a good harbinger of things to come
September 14th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Eagle One:
You’re welcome!
Combining the fan attendance for Big Brown’s Monmouth Stakes and Curlin’s Woodward is an interesting angle, because it’s a tale of two managements.
MP obviously didn’t have their heart in it.
(But even a legitimate effort on their part wasn’t likely to succeed. Demoralized and dissipated, their managers have just had it, the peacetime equivalents of the original army officers who, one by one, were relieved of their commands by Lincoln prior to and in the third year of the American Civil War.)
NYRA - also hardly anyone’s idea of a top-rank outfit - actually did spend big bucks on ads for the race.
But their good intentions were thwarted by their own relatively ad hoc scheduling.
Curlin ran during the sixth & final week of racing at Saratoga.
That’s when attendance - each year, like clockwork - drops right off the cliff.
On to the Breeders’ Cup!
September 15th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
I never get tired of watching Big Brown run. Absolutely Outstanding!