BIG BROWN DELIVERS

I was not on the Big Brown bandwagon going into this year's Derby, even though like a lot of folks around Louisville, UPS, the colt's namesake, has been very good for me.

These days horses have such short 2 and 3 year old campaigns, you can't really tell much until they actually run for the roses. Big Brown had only raced 3 times, and just once in a stakes, so there were real questions as to how well his feet were holding up and if he had the seasoning to relax in the early stages of a 20 horse scramble around the first turn.

But wow, did he ever, turning in the most impressive Derby I have ever seen. Most great Derby runs like Secretariat, Alysheba, Grindstone, Monarchos, Smarty Jones, Barbaro etc. etc. are done by horses running flat out, roaring down the stretch. Big Brown just loafed around the track, and hardly exerted himself at all besting the others. The game filly Eight Belles ran herself ragged in a futile effort to catch him and was so exhausted she apparently just lost all her strength along with her footing at the end of the race, leading to a fatal fall.

I can only compare this to two other Derbys- 1977, when Seattle Slew just galloped away from his overmatched pursuers, or maybe even 1948, when the greatest race horse of all time, Citation, put away a strong field that included his sensational stablemate Coaltown, in effortless fashion. Both colts, of course, went on to take a Triple Crown.

It's been 30 years since the last Triple Crown winner, but we may finally be about to see another one. Several colts have recently won the first two legs, the Derby and Preakness, only to falter in the Belmont. All of them, I thought, were only solid, not great runners. If his feet hold up, and his controversial trainer is on the up-and-up, Big Brown looks like a horse that may be truly great.