Big Brown has a big chance to make some noise
His name is Big Brown and he could be a Kentucky Derby contender, but you probably haven't seen or heard much about him.
With good reason: He's run only two races in his life.
But those races - an 11 1/4-length victory in his maiden outing at Saratoga last fall and a 12 3/4-length win in an allowance race at Gulfstream Park March 5 - have gotten some attention.
Contender or pretender?
We'll get a much better idea tomorrow, when the 3-year-old colt runs in the $1 million Florida Derby.
In addition to his two impressive victories was the Beyer figure of 104 after the win at Gulfstream, which was the second-best Beyer any 3-year-old has posted this season.
There are plenty of question marks, with only two races, six months apart, against moderate competition. But Big Brown's trainer, Richard Dutrow, said he feels the same excitement and curiosity the people trying to get a handle on the Derby favorites feel.
"I always think that talent is much more important than experience," Dutrow said. "I'd much rather have the talent than the experience. The other day, he was in between two other horses down the backside and [jockey Kent] Desormeaux said he was perfectly comfortable with that. I'd much rather have a horse with a world of talent as opposed to a seasoned veteran."
The early theory on Big Brown was that he was more of a grass horse than a dirt horse, which does not bode well for Derby contenders. Dutrow said he sees no indications of any problems going from turf to dirt.
"He didn't show any signs that he wouldn't run on the dirt," Dutrow said. "He showed us that he liked it. So when they took [the Gulfstream allowance] off the grass, it wasn't really a big deal to us. I'm glad that they did because now we have Derby dreams. If they had kept it on the grass, it might have been a different story.
"I have to say that we got very lucky."
The Florida Derby will be a test to see if Big Brown, who will run out of the No. 12 post, is as good as Dutrow hopes. He will also get a look at another Kentucky Derby contender in Elysium Fields, who was runner-up to Cool Coal Man in the Grade II Fountain of Youth and now looks like Big Brown's biggest challenger in the Florida Derby, which covers 1 1/8 miles. Fierce Wind, who has won three straight and is trained by Nick Zito, is another contender.
The Florida Derby is the start of the serious Derby prep races - the final tuneups. The Wood Memorial at Aqueduct and the Santa Anita Derby at Santa Anita are Grade I challenges next week; the Illinois Derby is a Grade II event. The following week closes out the preps with the Blue Grass Stakes (Grade I) at Keeneland, the Arkansas Derby (Grade II) at Oaklawn Park, and the Holy Bull (Grade III) at Gulfstream.
Another Derby challenger could come from tomorrow's Grade II UAE Derby at Nad Al Sheba.
Although War Pass remains a Derby favorite, the doubts after his last-place flop at the Tampa Bay Derby two weeks ago remain.
Tomorrow, the focus will be on the Florida Derby and Big Brown and, to some extent, Elysium Fields - if he can come up with a victory. A defeat will not eliminate either horse from consideration, but a victory will certainly elevate him to the next level.
Material from wire services used in this report.
