Big Brown crushes the field in the G1 Florida Derby on 3/29/08
Rick Dutrow looks like he’s got a potential Derby winner on his hands with 3 year old phenom Big Brown. On Saturday at Gulfstream Park the 3 year-old son of Boundary destroyed a seemingly stacked field of contenders in the Grade 1 Florida Derby, blazing through opening fractions of :22.76 and :45.83 to ultimately win by 5 lengths in 1:48.16, just .37 seconds off the track record.
Heading into the Floriday Derby, I had decided that the outside post position was too much for Big Brown to accept him as the 5/2 favorite. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The race wasn’t even close. He absolutely annihilated the competition and won so impressively that I think you now have to think of him as a serious threat to win the Kentucky Derby on May 3rd.
I’m not going to give too much away for my updated Road to the 2008 Kentucky Derby rankings coming out tomorrow night, but suffice to say that Big Brown will be rocketing up horseplayers charts all over the country. The win in the $1 million Florida Derby assures that the colt will be headed to Louisville for the Derby as one of the top betting choices. Big Brown now improves to 3 for 3 lifetime after having well documented hoof problems earlier in his career.
Smooth Air was chasing gamely for 2nd, and Tomcito did run well enough to get up for show as I suspected he might. Elysium Fields was a horrifically disappointing next to last in the 12 horse field. Big Brown returned $5.oo to win and anchored a $68.80 exacta with Smooth Air underneath. Adding Tomcito for show awarded bettors a $702.80 trifecta.
I’ll just come right out and say it. That was the most impressive win I’ve seen this year on the Derby trail. Pyro’s run in the Risen Star is probably second, but this is going to be the one that sticks out in my mind. Will there still be questions left to answer? Of course. Almost immediately the ESPN crew began speculating that the hard dirt surface of Churchill and the possibility of a good amount of pace would be factors working against the colt.
I’m not really concerned with that yet since we’ve got a full month to go. For now all I’m concerned with is the fact that we’ve got us someone who can give Pyro a run for the money. We’ve got a horse race starting to take shape now for May, and if somehow War Pass were to get back on track in the Wood Memorial, suddenly things would start to look a lot more interesting than they have been.
Of the horses running behind, I really liked what Tomcito did coming from last to third, especially since that was his first race in months. Jockey Jorge Chaves mentioned that he seemed a little tired, but the colt has raced grueling distances in the past. He looks to me like one that could move forward from this race along with the winner.
Smooth Air will almost assuredly be heading to Louisville as well after bagging $200,000 in earnings with his 2nd place finish. I was expecting him to get tired in the stretch but he showed he could handle the distance just fine. Hey Byrn got up late for 4th.
Big Brown is likely to envoke visions of Barbaro, as two years ago the legendary colt won the Florida Derby in route to his 2006 Kentucky Derby victory. My advice is to let Big Brown be Big Brown. Resist the urge to compare. Just let him mature into the horse he will be. We may have a great one on our hands here.
Great synopsis! I missed the race and thank you for making me feel like I was there. Also thanks for posting the vid. Visiting your blog was a one-stop update on both the Florida Derby and the DWC.
http://theaspiringhorseplayer.wordpress.com/2008/03/09/updated-kentucky-derby-rankings/#more-244
“Hey Byrn, Denis of Cork, and Colonel John, in that order, I think you’ll be replacing first, with who I don’t know yet.”
@Fran – Thanks! That’s my goal here!
@Diss – Hey Byrn was a longshot anyway. He didn’t disgrace himself today. Colonel John and Denis of Cork are still very much in the thick of things. Colonel John’s been winning out in California and Denis of Cork is looking at either the Wood or the Illinois Derby. We just haven’t seen them in the last couple of weeks – which proves horse racing is all about “what have you done for me lately?”
They still belong ranked though – no doubt about it. It’s just that I’ll take Pyro and Big Brown over any of them right now though.
Man – just caught Alien on Encore. I freakin’ love that movie! 30 years old and still scary as hell.
Holly shit! 12 hole wire to wire with ease. Pyro and War Pass are crying in there stalls!
Not Pyro.
This is the first horse, THE FIRST HORSE, since Gulfstream reconfigured the track that has won from the 11 or 12 hole. And he did it the more difficult way, blasting out of there for the lead.
After setting those fractions and drawing off like that, who has been more impressive?
Pyro still hasn’t proven he’s improved off his 2 year old form, he has looked good, but lets not forget he still hasn’t run faster than the fillies.
Big Brown was very impressive in his prep in Florida….I’t reminded me of
Curlin of last year…I played very close intention to the trainer and jockey..
Most of the time they say super things about their horses—When i heard
richard talk on hrtv,about Big Brown-I knew then this horse was the real
deal….I also heard Kent saying things like he has never been on a horse
like Big Brown…..I was pretty confident he would overcome the 12 post and
romp….He looks very big–Like Curlin…..
Perhaps they will meet at the breeders cup classic this fall….
Let’s hope they both stay healthy……..
Adding to Shelton’s comment:
And on the rail or not forced on the rail in the backstretch.
Most impressive!
BAKIN
I was most impressed. I guess that’s obvoius with the updated Derby rankings I just posted.
I heard today on hrtv that Elysium Fields suffered heat exhaustan during Florida Derby….
But have found no further info???
When I compared the recent GP paceline fractional times, Elysium Fields is a full second slower than Big Brown on a surface that carries speed. Smooth Air shows good spacing between races and did well last out at the route which probably inspired the trainer to run for a piece of a million dollar purse. SA does look like a sprinter/miler. Big Brown is a pretty fast horse running against a weak field and could have been 3-5 even with the outside post. BB shows 3 races and will have to deal with a large field on a fair surface. Both of his starts on dirt show somewhat weak final fractions; he’s not exactly royally bred either. A Barbaro type result in the Derby would not be a complete surprise but I won’t single him off his last 2 races going in. War Pass looks like a pure sprinter/miler on dirt. I would draw a line through his last race.
@Greg – that would make sense. It certainly didn’t look like the same Elysium Fields on Saturday. I had heard that his trainer was wondering if displacement took place. I’ve actually been sick the last couple of days though and haven’t really kept up as dilligently.
@Don – very interesting. I’ve still got concerns with Big Brown but at this point I’ve got concerns with everyone else as well. I think it’s him and Pyro towering over the rest of the field. I’ll probably waver back and forth between those two for the next month or so. If the pace is expected to be hot – advantage Pyro. It could all depend on post positions as well. Obviously I won’t be as hard on Big Brown next time if he draws the outside, but Pyro could have problems if he draws the 1 or 2 position in a large field. Similar to Curlin last year.
I have no reason to believe that Big Brown isn’t a serious racehorse, but any Dutrow horse that runs explosively is under a cloud of suspicion, however the real reason I can’t root for this horse is IEAH. They are as untrustworthy an operation as exists in the game. People have seemingly forgotten that just over two years ago they were splashed all over newspapers as the owners of the horse A One Rocket that was involved in the milkshaking/betting schemes involving, at best, very shady characters. Everything about their operation is highly suspect. I simply cannot root for them.
That doesn’t necessarily mean Big Brown isn’t very good. However, I won’t root for him.
And don’t forget…though BB looked good winning the FL Derby, he left a trail of sh*t in his wake. He’s still gotta lot to prove.
I love it. See, this is exactly what we needed – folks are starting to really take stands now. Derby fever is heating up!
big brown is an amazing racehorse no doubt about it, he showed speed and stamina in the florida derby, and his break from the normally suicidal 12 hole diddnt appear to be a problem because he broke fast and moved over and onto the lead, which is something you need in a 20 horse field
also people are comparing him to curlin
okay he does have 3 starts just like him, but theres a big difference in their running style, in the derby curlin ran off the pace and big brown will be looking for the lead, eliminating the traffic that curlin got stuck in,
and also big brown can run off the pace, in his allowance race he was 3rd at one point so hes not like war pass who must have the lead.
in the derby war pass will be spent, because war pass ran slightly slower fractions in the wood and then totoally flattened out in the stretch
while big brown dug deep and found more and drew away, which ive never seen war pass do.
his talent will deffinateley make up for his lack of experience
sorry when i said derby i meant the wood,
Makes sense to me, Michh. You’ve pretty much made the case for why I have Big Brown ranked #1 out of all the contenders right now.