Opinions - Everyone has one: Can he do it?
Here is what the world is saying about Big Brown's possibility of winning the Triple Crown. I have compiled commentaries and will keep updating this post as I find more:
Chicago Sun-Times - Jim O'Donnell - June 6: Big Brown: Not a gods-on favorite
Shortly after the call to the post for the 140th Belmont Stakes on Saturday, the rich and the railside in attendance will be invited to sway along with ''New York, New York.'' Some instead might want to ask the off-Broadway musical question: ''Are you sleeping, are you sleeping, racing gods? Racing gods?''.....more
ESPN.com - Jeremy Plonk - May 27: Big Brown by the numbers
Not since Whirlaway in 1941 has Thoroughbred racing witnessed such a domination of the opening two legs of its Triple Crown. The Big Brown express, which has rolled through Louisville and Baltimore in commanding style, now chugs along just one destination away from immortality: New York......more
The Sporting News - Brad Telias - May 23: Belmont the crowning challenge for Big Brown
....Quite likely, it'll be from lightly raced colt Casino Drive, whose pedigree reeks of stamina and who has been pointed to the Belmont Stakes for months......more
New York Newsday - Johnette Howard - May 22: Can Casino Drive derail Big Brown's 'Crown' bid?
....Casino Drive has been cast as Ali's Frazier, Borg's McEnroe, Russell's Celtics versus Wilt's 76ers. The new colt has run only two career races, both wins, but he turned in the same sort of scintillating performances that announced Big Brown's greatness at Saratoga last September and the Florida Derby this spring......more
USA Today - Reid Cherner & Tom Weir: Who's in your five?: Belmont cautionary tales
Big Brown seems to be an overwhelming choice to win the June 7 Belmont Stakes and sweep the Triple Crown. Here are five races in the last last two decades that should serve as a cautionary tale for those already awarding history to the undefeated colt......more
CNNSI - Tim Layden - May 20: Mark of a Champ
There was something very different about this colt. He was pulled from his mother's womb in the broodmare barn at Monticule Farm in central Kentucky on the afternoon of April 10, 2005, deep bay in color but with a strange white dot at the top of his left front leg, near his rib cage. It was perhaps the size of a quarter, and none of the three people in the stall at the time of his birth had ever seen such a marking on a horse of his coloring......more
Austin Statesman - John Jeansonne (Newsday) - May 19: Twists, turns await Big Brown in Belmont
Stuff does happen in thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown series. Big Brown is flying toward the June 7 Belmont Stakes as if on Pegasus wings, as uncatchable in Saturday's Preakness as he was in the May 3 Kentucky Derby. But the tragedy of facts is that, more often than not — and not at all since 1978 — a Derby-Preakness double has not led to the sport's most celebrated sweep......more
ESPN.com - Pat Forde - May 18: Baffert: Big Brown has royal pedigree to win Crown
The working premise for this column was that the smooth sailing is over for Big Brown. That winning the Belmont and the Triple Crown will be brutally difficult, no matter how easy he's made it look getting to this point. Then I talked to Bob Baffert. "I've never seen anything like him since I've been training," Baffert gushed Sunday. "Everyone's been waiting for the next Secretariat-type horse, and we got him. He's going to do it.".....more
ESPN.com - Bill Finley - May 15: Big Brown will win the Preakness, not the Belmont
....the Belmont is the race in which he is really going to be up against it. His first problem will be his workload. Here is a horse that has had some injury issues already and will be asked to run three huge efforts in the span of five weeks. He's going to have to be made of steel to hold up through all that. Chances are, he won't......more
Blood-Horse - Steve Haskin - May 15, 2008:
Ky. Derby Trail: Hot Brown on Derby Menu
....How many times do you think the word “freak” has been uttered since Saturday? Well, there is no doubt that the colt has accomplished freakish things in his brief career, but so did Curlin, and he couldn’t win the Derby off three career starts......more
Washington Post - John Scheinmann - May 13, 2008:
Big Brown, Speed Racer
....When Ragozin's company calculated the performance by Big Brown on May 3 in the Kentucky Derby, it made a startling discovery: the 3-year-old colt had recorded a - 3/4 , the lowest number in the modern history of the race......more
Star-Tribune - Mike Phillips - May 13: Big Brown may be special, but he has doubters, too
...."Is he a good horse? Yes. Is he a talented horse? Yes. Do I think he has a chance to win the Triple Crown? Yes, he has a chance," Shug McGaughey said. "He's a special kind of horse, but it's only been done 10 times in 130 years. The chance of it happening, no I don't think it will happen.".....more
Love this video - puts his quest in historical perspective:
