More Work To Do

Even if he is victorious at Belmont in a little less than three weeks, Big Brown still has a way to go to prove he belongs in the pantheon with Secretariat et al. -- and facing Curlin would go a long way toward addressing that (yes, sometimes I agree with Andrew Beyer -- it happens!). It seems unlikely at this point, though -- and that is even if we discount the possibility that he may be retired immediately after the Belmont. If Curlin does indeed opt for the Arc, the Breeders' Cup Classic would be Big Brown's only race against his elders -- and given that most of Curlin's agemates have retired, that doesn't leave a lot of competition. Of course, there's still the Belmont itself to get through -- and it has been demonstrated time and again that things do not always go to plan there: Just before the Belmont, Smarty Jones' trainer, John Servis, expressed some reservations about everybody ganging up on his horse. "The one reservation I had, the thing that makes the Belmont almost how best to say it? unethical, is that everybody knows there's only one horse to beat. That puts a different spin to just going out there," he said Sunday, "and finding out if you can win the race." What Servis was likely referring to, without pointing a finger directly at anyone, was the way jockeys Jerry Bailey and Alex Solis rode Eddington and Rock Hard Ten that day. The only horse that finished ahead of Smarty Jones that day was a 36-1 shot named Birdstone, who made a late charge and confirmed his quality by winning the Travers Stakes in his next start. Plenty of fans of the popular colt, however, think Bailey swung Eddington wide about a third of the way into the grueling 1 1/2-mile race more to hamper Smarty Jones' chances than to improve his own. The only thing Servis would say further on that point was "that nothing that happened from the run-up to the Belmont all the way to the finish was a surprise." Here's hoping karma does not mistake Big Brown for any of his connections. I'm not ready to simply hand Big Brown the Triple Crown, however; strange things can happen in the Belmont and Casino Drive is a force to be reckoned with. My major concern about Casino Drive is not his lack of experience (he doesn't compare that unfavorably with Big Brown, after all) is that he seems likely to have an 'imported' jockey in Yutaka Take; I'd prefer someone with a lot of experience over the Belmont track (and ideally at the Belmont distance, although Take does have that - he won the Japan Cup aboard Special Week and the Japanese Triple Crown with Deep Impact) since I believe that was something of a factor (among others, including those mentioned in the article above) in Smarty Jones' second-place finish. I'd like to see a Triple Crown as much as any racing fan -- but a Triple Crown winner who heads immediately off to the shed further weakens the sport; seeing Big Brown and Casino Drive begin a rivalry that lasts through the late summer would be a lot more rewarding.