Archive for the ‘Big Brown’ Category

In the nine hours of Breeders’ Cup telecasts last Friday and Saturday, the strangest segment by far came during a brief interview between comedic sportscaster Kenny Mayne and Michael Iavarone, president of the IEAH stable that owns a majority of Big Brown, when Iavarone said he and members of his family had been the subject of a death threat more than four months earlier on the morning of the Belmont Stakes.

Mayne opened the interview by saying Iavarone showed a lot of emotion after jockey Kent Desormeaux pulled Big Brown out of the race at the top of the stretch when the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner was hopelessly beaten.

Iavarone picked it up from there.

“The morning of the (June 7) Belmont Stakes, I had been woken up around 10 a.m.,” he told Mayne. "There was a knock on my door and there were several New York City Police Department detectives. They asked me to come outside because they didn’t want to talk to me in front of my family. They told me there had been a serious death threat lodged against me, basically from Tallahassee, Florida, from an extremist saying that if anything should happen to Big Brown in the race, myself and my family were not safe. Basically I was followed by eight to nine New York detectives all day, everywhere I went. Obviously after the horse was pulled up the rest is obvious.”

Mayne said ESPN/ABC learned of Iavarone’s story the day before the live interview aired and suggested that Iavarone’s emotional reaction to Big Brown’s defeat was “painted by that threat, not what the shortfall was of not winning the Triple Crown.”

“My immediate reaction was split in half,” Iavarone told Mayne. “Obviously there was concern for the horse and concern for my family. I was headed in both directions and both of them were catastrophic at the time. The first thing I did was grab my daughters and make sure we were out of the way and safe and tears were falling. It was just a terrible day for us.”

With 24 hours lead time before the interview, Mayne said ESPN/ABC “tried to contact the detective you said investigated the case and were unable to reach him.” He then asked Iavarone, “Did they ever follow up with you and say the case was closed? Do you feel comfortable now?”

“Obviously the horse is sound and is retired so I would not believe they would have any reason to harm myself or my family,” Iavarone said. “They have not told me the case is closed.”

The strange timing of Iavarone’s revelations notwithstanding, there are some details about his story that just don’t add up. I was seated directly behind Iavarone in the box section of Belmont during the running of the Belmont Stakes, and saw just one person who was clearly serving in a security capacity – a burly African-American man wearing a dark suit, an open collared white shirt and a “Big Brown” button on his lapel. It appears to be the same individual who has traveled with Iavarone to other races, including last weekend’s Breeders’ Cup.

Immediately after the race, while Big Brown was being unsaddled, I stood directly below the IEAH box and took a series of photographs of a shocked Iavarone, who was surrounded by his family members and fellow IEAH executive Richard Schiavo. There appeared to be no additional security around Iavarone and his family, only the same bodyguard described above. Certainly, I didn’t see “eight or nine New York detectives” in the immediate area.

I’m not accusing Iavarone of making up a story about a death threat. There were a series of incidents and revelations that made Iavarone something of a lightning rod with individuals within and outside of the racing community, some of which inflamed animal rights activities. There was the revelation that Big Brown raced legally on anabolic steroids when he won the Derby, the disclosure that Iavarone had lied about his past life as a “high profile banker on Wall Street,” the fact he had been fined and suspended by the National Association of Security Dealers, and the determination to run Big Brown in the Belmont despite suffering a quarter crack and missing training before the race.

Attempts by the Paulick Report to contact New York Racing Association officials to determine their knowledge of the alleged death threat and increased New York Police Department security detail were not successful.

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 "I am equally disappointed that Big Brown and Curlin will never compete against each other. It was a dream of mine and thousands of other fans of the sport. Now, we all join together in wishing Big Brown a speedy recovery."

END OF TELECONFERENCE

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The 15-day suspension against Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Rick Dutrow for an alleged Clenbuterol positive in Salute the Count, a horse that ran at Churchill Downs on May 2, should be overturned by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, hearing officer James Robke has ruled.

Clenbuterol has a permissible threshold level of 25 picograms per ml of serum, according to state guidelines. Iowa State Laboratory reported a finding of 41 picograms; the documentation packet was labeled: “Confirmation for Clenbuterol in Plasma.” But the hearing officer ruling said there was no evidence presented by Iowa State or a secondary, confirmatory lab at Louisiana State University that confirmed the presence of Clenbuterol in serum. “Neither was there any evidence to explain the difference between serum and plasma,” the hearing officer recommendation states. Because of this, the administrative officer said the commission had "not met its burden" to prove the allegations against Dutrow were true.

The recommendation (click here to read the complete ruling) said the commission “failed to prove that the amount of Clenbuterol was above the threshold of ‘25 picograms per ml of serum.’ The commission proved that the amount of Clenbuterol in Salute the Count was indeed 41 picograms per ml of plasma. No evidence was presented to explain the difference (between plasma and serum). When dealing with two amounts … it is imperative that there is specificity as to the amounts.”

Lisa Underwood, executive director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, issued the following statement: “The staff of the KHRC has reviewed the hearing officer’s recommendations to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission regarding the steward’s ruling against trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. We have concluded that we have a strong basis for filing exceptions to the recommended order, and we intend to do so promptly.”

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We’re hearing a lot recently about what a good thing it is to be a maverick. Jackson seemed worthy of that title as a supporter, ironically, of tradition; and restoring the BC’s more appropriate role in championship racing. By running in the Turf instead of the Classic, Curlin’s master would not only maintain his personal credibility, but would also assume a leadership role in righting racing’s course.

Finishing second in his lone turf start — sandwiched between two previous BC Turf winners — Curlin’s defeat in the Man o’ War appeared to be more a function of riders than horses. Curlin could redeem himself against the returning Red Rocks and add to his Horse of the Year resume in the process. The best part would be that Curlin’s fans would be able to bet him with the confidence they would be getting a competitive as well as sporting effort from both horse and owner.

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By Ray Paulick

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.

(VIDEO, EQUIBASE CHART)

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.

Jess Jackson, majority owner of Horse of the Year Curlin, now wants the owners of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown to consider taking Curlin on in the Jockey Club Gold Cup Sept. 27 at Belmont Park. On Wednesday morning, Jackson challenged the owners to run Big Brown in the Aug. 30 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga, where Curlin will race next, but Michael Iavarone of IEAH Stables said the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita Oct. 24 is where the championship should be decided.

 

Jackson issued the following statement late Wednesday afternoon:

 

“I am delighted that we are talking about Curlin on the day that Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian ever. Great athletes deserve great company. This is what sports is about — the thrill of competition. And it is my belief that Thoroughbred racing is indeed the greatest sport of all time.

 

“I made a sportsman’s proposal to Big Brown’s connections this morning to race at Saratoga Race Course in the Grade 1 Woodward on August 30, and they declined the invitation. I am disappointed by the news. I read this morning that Big Brown might be looking for a turf race at Belmont Park, so apparently, his connections are looking at other options this fall.

 

“I would ask Big Brown’s camp to consider the prestigious Grade 1, $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup Invitational at Belmont Park on September 27 as an option. It’s a prestigious, prized race on a natural dirt surface at one of the great tracks in the world. Big Brown is a champion Thoroughbred and, most certainly, would be prepared to race at the end of September. Perhaps we could work together to get the Breeder’s Cup to add an incentive to the purse so that a specific charity would get a bigger slice of the pie.

 

“This has long been a part of my platform for this industry - bigger purses.

 

"Another part of my personal platform is to make charitable contributions. When Barbara and I bought Curlin, we immediately established the Jackson Curlin for Kids Fund whose purpose is to make a difference in the lives of children where Curlin runs or trains. In February of this year, we donated $1 million to The Woods Laboratory for equine and human cancer and infertility research. Plus we give millions to more than 600 charities every year because we believe it is the right thing to do.   We also are aware of IEAH’s involvement with charitable causes, including the current construction of the Ruffian Equine Medical Center across from Belmont Park. We seem to have two great horses and a common purpose. Why not get them together?

 

"As to the Breeder’s Cup, it is not part of my current plan for Curlin. I felt it was the sporting thing to do to announce Curlin’s schedule to give fair notice to anyone looking to compete against the reigning Horse of the Year this fall.

           

"Our plan is to focus on the Woodward, look to the Jockey Cup Gold Cup, hopefully with Big Brown in the field, and review our plans after that.

"Ultimately, all of us have to do what is in the best interest of our horse. I wish Big Brown well and hope Curlin has the opportunity to compete against him. It certainly would help the industry and please the fans of both of these majestic horses."

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By Ray Paulick

Jess Jackson, the majority owner of Curlin, is hoping to shame the owners of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown into challenging the reigning Horse of the Year in the Aug. 30 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga.

Jackson said if Big Brown runs against Curlin in the Woodward he will donate $50,000 from the Curlin for Kids Fund to Anna House, the non-profit day-care center for the children of backstretch workers at Belmont Park run by the Belmont Child Care Association.

“Big Brown’s camp recent remarks about Curlin inspired me to offer an incentive to get these two great horses to race at the legendary track at the Spa,” Jackson said in a press release. “Both horses are eligible for this race and both have plenty of time to prepare for what would be Thoroughbred racing at its very best and in the name of a great cause.

“This type of competition between horses is exactly what Thoroughbred racing needs — an event that introduces the excitement and competition of racing to a broader audience,” Jackson said. “Imagine Horse of the Year Curlin racing against Derby winner Big Brown, on a legendary track.  I would love it, the fans would love it, and the horses would love it. ”

Don’t hold your breath waiting for the IEAH Stable or Paul Pompa Jr. to accept the challenge on behalf of Big Brown. Despite the comments by Big Brown’s trainer, Rick Dutrow, that Big Brown is “way better than Curlin,” the Boundary colt’s connections are looking for a specially created turf race for 3-year-olds at Belmont Park in mid-September. The $500,000 Woodward is for 3-year-olds and upward at 1 1/8 miles on dirt. Big Brown’s owners have said they will then point their colt for the Breeders’ Cup Classic on the new synthetic surface at Santa Anita Oct. 25.Curlin’s plans after the Woodward have not beendetermined.

Curlin  worked on Monday in preparation for the Woodward, going six furlongs in 1:14.62 on the sloppy Oklahoma training track at Saratoga.  The Grade 1 Woodward would be Curlin’s first race at Saratoga. Under the weight for age conditions,  Big Brown and other three-year-olds would carry 121 pounds; 4-year-old Curlin and other older horses would carry 126 pounds.

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“Been there, done that,” Jackson said to reporters the other day in a teleconference to announce future plans for the reigning Horse of the Year.

Instead, Jackson seems bent on some exotic mission that he hopes will prove more satisfying, like the Hong Kong Cup or Japan Cup in Asia.

So that’s how far the Breeders’ Cup Classic has fallen. The majority owner of the best horse America has seen, perhaps since Cigar more than a decade ago, is seeking new worlds to conquer rather than go for a repeat in the richest and what should be the most important race run on American soil – the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Did I say run on American “soil”? Right now, no one is sure exactly what the Classic will be run on when the Breeders’ Cup comes to Santa Anita Park for its two-day race meeting on Oct. 24-25. As I write this, 80 days before the self-proclaimed “world championships,” an Australian company is sifting a variety of materials onto the oval that that has hosted some of the greatest races this sport has seen. The company, Pro-Ride, has some experience in installing and maintaining training tracks and materials for lunging rings et al, but Santa Anita will be the first major meeting that uses Pro-Ride for racing.

Instead of world championships, perhaps this year’s Breeders’ Cup (and next year’s since Breeders’ Cup management and its board decided to go back-to-back at Santa Anita in 2009) should be called the grand experiment. Jackson (and who can really blame him?) doesn’t feel he should use Curlin as a guinea pig on such a surface.

Once Breeders’ Cup (and the industry) determines whether or not these man-made tracks are better for the horses and for the sport, there will remain the serious question of how to keep a Breeders’ Cup champion like Curlin interested in going for a repeat.

Tiznow is the only horse to have won the Classic twice (2000 and ’01), and only a handful have even tried it.  For many winners, it’s been the final stop on the road to the breeding shed. Jess Jackson decided to keep Curlin in training for another year, and you can select from one of the following reasons: a) he’s a sportsman who doesn’t need the money; b) there were legal entanglements involving his ownership that might have made a stud deal difficult; c) all of the above.

Say, for example, trainer Rick Dutrow is able to hold Big Brown together through the end of the year and win the Classic with the same verve with which the colt won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. He’ll go from there to Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky to get ready for the 2009 breeding season. The economic reality is that a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner can earn more money by breeding than he can by racing.

 Does it have to be that way?

Has Breeders’ Cup looked into the possibility of offering a bonus for a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner that repeats the following year? Has it considered enhancing the Classic purse for winners of Triple Crown races to keep them in training for another year? Even if Big Brown lost this year’s Breeders’ Cup, dangling an extra few million dollars in his direction for the 2009 Classic might be enough of an incentive to keep him in training. Well, perhaps not Big Brown, but you get the idea.

The international competition to attract the world’s best horses is getting tougher. Many of these international events pay all shipping fees for horses and expenses for their connections, something the Breeders’ Cup has not done. Organizations like the Japan Racing Association have included bonuses in the already-rich purses for their international races to attract good horses.

The Breeders’ Cup is in competition with those international organizations. If it wants to keep America’s best horses here and attract others from around the globe, it’s going to have start thinking like a business and offer incentives that will help justify its claim to be a true world championship. Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

Big Brown broke smoothly but jockey Kent Desormeaux allowed Joe Bravo to rush Coal Play to the lead before reaching the first turn. Coal Play set fractions of :23.05 for the opening quarter mile,:46.59 for the half, and 1:10.85 for six furlongs.

Big Brown sat in second, about 1 1/2 lengths off the lead, but whenDesoremaux asked him to pick it up on the final turn, Coal Play maintained his advantage, forcing Desormeaux to go to the whip before reaching the top of the stretch. Coal Play opened up by two lengths at the furlong pole, (the mile in 1:35.20) prompting Rick Dutrow to concede in a post-race interview on ESPN that he thought “we were going to get beat.” But Big Brown, racing out in the middle of the track, gradually ate into Coal Play’s margin and caught him inside the sixteenth pole, drawing off to a hard fought win over the 20-1 outsider. Coal Play was 4 1/4 lengths clear of  third-place finisher Cool Coal Man, who was beaten 31 3/4 lengths by Big Brown in the Kentucky Derby. The second- and third-place finishers were both trained by Nick Zito for owner Robert LaPenta, the team that ended Big Brown’s Triple Crown bid with Da’ Tara in the Belmont Stakes.

Big Brown completed the 1 1/8 miles on a fast track in 1:48.31. Spend a Buck holds the track record in 1:46 4/5.

"His reputation was on the line today," said Michael Iavarone of the IEAH Stable that co-owns Big Brown with Paul Pompa Jr. "It was a little bit more than I was expecting. He really had to struggle to run that horse down. …We saw his heart today. It looked like he was beaten at the top of the stretch."

Iavarone said Big Brown has no more than two races left, with the Breeders’ Cup Classic his ultimate target. He said he would look at the options for a race between now and the Oct. 25 Classic at Santa Anita.

Big Brown paid $2.40 to win as the 1-5 favorite. The win was the sixth in seven career starts for the 3-year-old son of Boundary out of the Nureyev mare, Mien, bred in Kentucky by Gary Knapp’s Monticule. The $600,000 he won in the Haskell increased his earnings to $3,314,500. In addition, Monmouth paid a bonus of $50,000 to the owners and trainer of Big Brown as part of the conditions of the race. In some previous runnings, the track paid an undisclosed bonus to trainers for bringing certain horses to the race.

Coal Play was attempting to win his first stakes and third race overall in nine lifetime starts. He was coming off a third-place finish in an allowance race at Monmouth Park July 4. Before that he won a Monmouth allowance by 9 1/4 lengths in May against non-winners of two races lifetime.

Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report