Bye Bye, BB

Big Brown Injury Forces His Retirement (10.13.08)

....Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner Big Brown has been retired after suffering an injury Monday morning.

The three-year-old injured his right front hoof Monday morning while training at Aqueduct. The injury means that Big Brown will not start in this year's $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic versus 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin. The two have been circling each other for the better part of the year.

Big Brown is set to enter stud at Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky. Big Brown won seven of eight career starts for more than $3.6 million.

Hay Now

I have finally recovered from watching beloved Big Brown straggle to the finish line, losing the 140th Belmont Stakes -- & the Triple Crown.

Only 11 horses have ever won thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown. The grueling schedule of 3 races in five weeks at longer distances than most three-year-olds have previously run is probably the most difficult task any horse will face in their racing career. Affirmed in 1978 remains the last Triple Crown winner.

Big Brown diminished his reputation as a racehorse and might have significantly decreased his value as a stallion, not to mention his marketing value. Before the Preakness, Three Chimneys Farm in Midway Ky., purchased a percentage of Big Brown’s stallion rights in a deal valued at $60 million.

Big Brown did make history by becoming the first horse to win the KY Derby & win the Preakness, and then finish last in the Belmont.

Kentucky Derby: 2:01.82 for the 1.25 miles - 1st place!

Preakness: 1:54.80 for the 1 3-16 miles - 1st place!

Belmont: 5:12:58.92 for the 1.5 miles - last place?!

Won 2 games, lost 1 - sounds familiar.

Gallup Poll

The most exciting 2 minutes in sports is happening today - the 134th Kentucky Derby. Without bias, Sludge is pulling for Big Brown, of course.  Big Brown just happens to be the fav to win (7:2 odds) in the 20-Horse Field Racing In Run For Roses.

Big Brown will have to overcome an undesirable post position in the No. 20  (a Sludge-appropriate #) slot. The only Derby winner to leave from the far outside post was Clyde Van Dusen in 1929.  But the trainer isn't concerned about the horse's starting position. He said he prefers to have Big Brown break out of the gates on the outside, which the trainer hopes should assure him of a clean start.

Lefty Loosey

You will hafta wait until the fall season to use the same plea Big Brown's been trotting around for not finishing first place in the Belmont....the excuse: A loose screw shoe.

[Recent] photos show a dislodged shoe on the horse's right hind hoof about 200 yards into the Belmont. There was no evidence of injury to the hoof after the race, but Iavarone didn't think it could have been comfortable for the horse, who was wearing an acrylic patch on his left front hoof to compensate for a painful quarter crack.

"When a shoe comes off, it does throw a horse out of balance, but it depends how traumatically it happens and at what stage of the race," Greg Bennett, the primary veterinarian for Rick Dutrow, Big Brown's trainer told the paper. "A couple nails can loosen up, which can cause a lot of problems and affect a horse's performance.

Week 8: Place, Showup, Wins

Game 1
Sludge entered the gates at the Polo Fields on its high horse undefeated in the spring season. Oddlyenough, oddsmaker were less-than awed at the oddities of this matchup. Here's what brown had to work with:
1 - savage men (David - tweaked hamstring, NICH - fatigue, Joe - hadn't played in 3 weeks, MattHew - strained eyelash, MicHael - carpal tunnel).
2 - the young colts (opponent) had the loins to stomp.

Sludge went off with no horsing around. Their cohesive play was founded by person-D creating turnovers and then marely transitioning smoothly from D-to-O.

Up 4 strides at half!

Around the turn toward 15, big brown's up-field movement began losing out on an aggravating loose zone. 13-10. A timeout was smartly taken to corral and take some livestock. Like a past champion, this lean big brown closed the game out outpacing Pgalore for the whinny -- 15-10 (3:2).

Game 2
As wonderful as the first game was, this game lacked any stress tests -- fact that has nothing to do with the extra players Sludge gained. The missing piece to this second game was giddyup. Brown kept the pace from the first game while ShamWow-N-stRoll trotted.

Aided by Nigel, Andrew & Russ, the first half was easily downed like a minted julep; 8-3. Gulp!

MJ, Bucci & Meg easily reined their women during 4:3 play with a gallant gallop to a 2nd win of the day -- 15-5 (3:1).

:Game Notes:
CHarlie was the second cutest fan after Charlotte Rose arrived.

Horse Course

A horse jockey is a horse jockey...of course, of course.

Summer Bird, sent off at 11-1 odds, gave jockey Kent Desormeaux a Belmont victory he desperately wanted. The winning time for the 1.5 miles was 2:27.54. Last year, he won the Derby & Preakness aboard Big Brown, only to have to pull up the colt in the 2008 Belmont.

Gallup Poll III

The Belmont Stakes takes place Saturday, June 7th, @ Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. The 4-legged horse race is the 3rd leg of the Triple Crown, following 5 weeks after the Kentucky Derby, and 3 weeks after the Preakness Stakes.


Will Big Brown have another winning movement?

Gallup Poll II

Sludge & odds (1-5) fav Big Brown - the Kentucky Derby winner - drew the #7 post for the 133rd Preakness race (1 & 3-16th-mile) at Pimlico in Baltimore. BB had front hoof problems last fall and winter, but they've been fine for 3 months (what's that in horse years?). Today, the colt is rocking a new pair of glued-on (yeee-ouch!) shoes with copper clips to help adherence & some cushion for the hoof.