I’m sure there are people more ignorant about horse racing than I am.  I’m in the general sports fan pool who watches the Triple Crown races whenever they roll around.  So I am not qualified to even have an opinion about Saturday’s Preakness.

Having said that, did it look not look like Edwin Moses entered in a private school track meet?  Big Brown went off at 1-5 odds for crying out loud.  I explained to my wife that if she bet $1mil, she’d win $200,000.  “Would I get my million back?”  Every the expert high-stakes gambler, I had to think for a second before letting her know that, indeed, she would get that million back.

No horses raced in this thing, with a few threats waiting for the 1.5 mile Belmont to burst horse racing’s bubble.  ESPN.com has an interview with Bob Baffert (who I’ve even heard of) singing the praises of Big Brown as a worthy Triple Crown winner.  It is only fitting that the threat to the title is named Casino Drive, an import from Japan.

A couple of interesting tidbits.  When you examine the pedigree of Big Brown, a strange thing jumps out (or at least it seems quite strange to me).  The granddaughter (Mien) and grandson (Boundary) of Northern Dancer are the parents of Big Brown.  Can you say genetic mutation anyone?  The second item is a bit of tragic irony.  Big Brown, as many leading horses today, will probably retire to stud after the Belmont, win, lose, or draw.  He will stand at Three Chimneys Farm, where Kentucky Derby runner-up Eight Belles was bred.

Tags: Big Brown, Kentucky Derby, Three Chimneys Farm, Triple Crown

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 6:53 am and is filed under Sporting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.