Big Brown Triple Crown . com

Big Brown's next race is scheduled for August 3rd on the Jersey Shore. Early on there had been talk that he would run at the Travers in Saratoga, but the connections have opted for the faster surface at Monmouth Park in New Jersey. Michael Iavarone also cited the breeze off of the ocean as a reason that Monmouth was a better place to run than a usually hot and humid Saratoga. The Belmont Stakes was run in very hot and humid conditions in New York. The Travers will be run towards the end of August.

New York Newsday - Ed McNamara: Big Brown to return in Aug. 3 Haskell at Monmouth

...Iavarone hinted last week that the 11/8-mile Haskell was a more likely destination for Big Brown than the 11/4-mile Travers Stakes Aug. 23 at Saratoga. "Monmouth has a tighter surface," he said, "and usually there's a breeze because it's near the ocean. At .Saratoga, you can get extreme heat and .humidity." Big Brown has resumed his daily training regimen at Aqueduct, where trainer Rick Dutrow is based. The colt's connections are eager for him to rebound from his inexplicable collapse in the Triple Crown finale. "All his achievements got lost when that happened," Iavarone said......more

Michael Iavarone announced on Tuesday that Kent Desormeaux would ride Big Brown in his next race. It was Iavarone who originally chose Desormeaux, despite Trainer Richard Dutrow's desired to go with Edgar Prado. Richard Dutrow, who blamed Kent Desormeaux for the Belmont Stakes defeat, took the chance to again say that he would have chosen Prado and that the choice of Desormeaux was always that of Iavarone.

New York Times - Bill Finley: Despite Dutrow’s Criticism, Big Brown’s Jockey Will Stay

Already planning ahead for Big Brown’s next race, members of his team said Tuesday that they planned to stick with their regular rider, Kent Desormeaux, and resume the colt’s monthly treatments of Winstrol......more

Trainer Richard Dutrow announced that Big Brown will be going back on steroids with a shot this weekend. However, he still contends that he doesn't need the steroids and the issue of steroids had nothing to do with his Belmont Stakes performance.

CBC Sports: Big Brown going back on steroids

Big Brown is going back on the juice. Just days after an attempt to become the first horse in 30 years to win American racing's Triple Crown ended in disappointment and confusion, the colt's controversial trainer says he will give him a steroid shot this weekend. Rick Dutrow Jr., who made much of his decision to discontinue the use of the steroid Winstrol after a shot in mid-April, told the New York Times he would go back on the regime even though the trainer doesn't believe it makes any difference......more

Buried in an article by Joe Drape in the New York Times is a mention that Big Brown may run in the Haskell at Monmouth Park instead of the Travers at Saratoga. Iavarone sited the deserved reputation that Monmouth is a tight and fast track and commented that he knew he would get favorable conditions there. This was part of his series of comments blaming the slower than normal Belmont track for Big Brown's loss. The Haskell will be run on August 3rd for a purse of $1 million. The track also may provide a participation fee. It is a 1 1/8 mile race for 3 year olds held at Monmouth Park in New Jersey. It was the race that Curlin ran as his first race after a defeat in the Belmont Stakes in 2007. Curlin was beat in last years Haskell by Any Given Saturday. The decision to run Curlin in the Haskell last year was mostly due to the fact that the 2007 Breeders Cup was to be held at Monmouth and his connections wanted him to get a prep on that surface. the 2008 Breeders Cup Classic, which Big Brown is ultimately pointed towards will be run at Santa Anita Race Track in Los Angeles on October 25th. Also worth noting was that Iavarone had mentioned on a few occasions before the Belmont Stakes that he has always wanted to run a horse in the Travers, making this decision even stranger. Could this simply be Iavarone's way of sending a message to the NYRA about his frustration with the condition of the Belmont Track on Saturday?

New York Times (subscription) - Joe Drape: Two Opinions of Desormeaux’s Ride of Big Brown

In fact, Iavarone said that he was now considering running Big Brown in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park rather than the Travers Stakes at Saratoga. The Haskell, which will be run Aug. 3, offers a $1 million purse, a potential participation fee and a track known to be tight and fast. “I know we’d get favorable conditions on a track that is more to our liking,” he said. “I don’t want Big Brown to get on another racetrack he doesn’t like.”......more

Richard Dutrow has finally spoken publicly and is now questioning the ride of Kent Desormeaux. Big Brown was shipped to Dutrow's barn at Aqueduct Race Track on Monday morning and the trainer spoke about the possibility that the way that the horse and jockey interacted going into the first turn cost Big Brown the chance to win the Triple Crown. Desormeaux and Dutrow have still not spoken since the race. At the start of the first turn, Desormeaux took a hard hold of Big Brown and yanked him to the outside. At that point he bumped with Anak Nakal and then found some running room outside of Tale of Ekati. All the while, eventual wire-to-wire winner Da' Tara was opening up a three-length lead around the clubhouse turn. Dutrow thinks that Desormeaux may have confused the horse saying that Big Brown probably had no idea what was happening getting switched all over the track like that. Desormeaux revealed Monday that his plan was go to the lead, but that Big Brown slipped coming out of the gate and that he was pinched back. Desormeaux commented after the race that he "had no horse" and that he could not second guess this ride the way he had second guessed his ride on Real Quiet ten years ago when that horse lost by a nose in his pursuit of the Triple Crown. Kent Desormeaux told Wallace Matthews of New York Newsday that the track was too soft. Michael Iavarone had also blamed the track because of an apparent water problem that they had at the track, but Belmont park confirms that the track was watered as normal.

Daily Racing Form - David Grening: Dutrow questions Desormeaux's ride

"I got people calling me from all over the world telling me I ran a sore horse in the race, the jock had to pull him up," Dutrow said as he stood in his Aqueduct barn's shed row waiting for Big Brown's van. "I don't know why he had to do that. If he felt the horse was sore, yeah, but the horse was fighting him the whole way through the lane and he was fighting the horse the whole way up till the lane. I just don't get the whole thing.".....more

Iavarone said Big Brown never got a hold of Belmont’s dried-out track. He pointed to the performance of the I.E.A.H.-owned sprinter Benny the Bull, who won the six-furlong Grade II True North Handicap by a desperate neck in 1 minute 9.06 seconds on Saturday, relatively slow.......more

The Big Brown Camp is still perplexed a day after his disappointing Belmont Stakes. It was quiet at Barn 2 as Big Brown went through a normal morning routine as if he knew nothing of the impact his race had on those around him. Trainer Richard Dutrow was no where to be seen and Michelle Nevin, the assistant trainer and exercise rider was not talking. When owner Michael Iavarone was finally tracked down by phone he indicated that they haven't been able to solve the mystery of why Kent Desormeaux had "no horse" under him when it was time for the final move in the Belmont Stakes. No one has found any thing to explain his stunning performance. Iavarone told Joe Drape of the New York Times that everything seems fine and that "there’s nothing physically that’s shown up." He reiterated that the suspect feet of the great horse had nothing to do with it. He also says that Big Brown will remain in training and be pointed towards the Travers and the Breeder's Cup. They are considering running in the Jim Dandy on July 27th at Saratoga as a prep race for the Travers.

AP - Beth Harris: Big Brown left alone after stunning Belmont loss

The morning after the Belmont Stakes, Big Brown stopped to pose for photographers as if he had won the Triple Crown. Everyone except the horse knew otherwise. Trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. was a no-show, leaving questions and few answers about what happened to Big Brown in Saturday's 1 1/2-mile Belmont. The Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner was eased up by jockey Kent Desormeaux in the stretch, ending up last, beaten by eight other horses. The bay colt faced the cameras alone Sunday, except for exercise rider Michelle Nevin — and she wasn't talking. Outwardly, Big Brown appeared no worse for wear. He got his morning bath outside Barn 2, playfully nipping at a leather lead held by Nevin. Then she led him in circles around the inside of the barn, with Big Brown walking perfectly on his patched left front hoof......more

Big Brown is pointed to run in the Travers at Saratoga in August, and the Breeders’ Cup Classic in October at Santa Anita, where he is likely to meet Curlin, the reigning horse of the year. “It puts a little more pressure on us to win those races,” Iavarone said. “I know a lot of people say we haven’t beaten anyone, and we needed to take on older horses.” So for now, Big Brown’s future is pretty straightforward. Dutrow, Iavarone and his camp will go back to the drawing board. Unless a physical ailment shows up, Iavarone says Big Brown will maintain his regular training schedule in Dutrow’s main barn at Aqueduct and perhaps breeze as soon as two weeks from now. “All we can do is chalk this up as a mystery,” Iavarone said, “and regroup.”.....more

....“We went over him good last night after the race, and again this morning, and there’s nothing physically that’s shown up,” Iavarone told me just a few minutes ago by telephone. “He scoped clean. His feet are ice cold, quarter crack not an issue. He had a very loose hind left shoe, but that’s not an issue. We’ll just chalk it up to a question mark at this point. “I’m understanding they had an issue without water and they weren’t able to water the track and it got deep, I don’t know… We’re perplexed, nobody can figure this one out, the horse did not displace (his palate), he scoped fine, there’s no mucous, everything is ice cold. The horse that won, he (Big Brown) had beaten him by 23 (lengths) in the Florida Derby and so, I don’t know. We just have to watch him carefully and make sure we didn’t miss anything.”....more

....Win or lose, entering the Belmont most people believed it would be Big Brown's last race. The son of Boundary will begin his stallion career next year at Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky, and a retirement announcement Sunday would have surprised no one. Instead, Iavarone said IEAH is sticking to its plan to train Big Brown for the Travers Stakes Aug. 23 at Saratoga. "Unless something shows up, we're going to maintain his regular training schedule," he said, "which will be to breeze in a couple of weeks and point him for the Travers. ... I haven't lost confidence in the horse.".....more

After two thorough postrace examinations, the shocking last-place finish by previously undefeated Big Brown in Saturday's Belmont Stakes remains a mystery. "He's sound, he's clean," Mike Iavarone, the co-president of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner's majority owner, IEAH Stables, said Sunday. "Scoped clean. Feet ice-cold. Quarter-crack not an issue," he added. "We went over him good last night and again this morning, and there's nothing that shows up.".....more

Suffolk Downs race track is offering a $1 million participation bonus and $5 million purse if Big Brown and Curlin enter the Massachusetts Handicap undefeated and face off against each other on September 20th in East Boston. The race is 1 1/8 miles and carries a purse of $500,000. The additional purse money would be funded by Coastal Development LLC, a company controlled by Richard T. Fields, Suffolk's biggest shareholder.

Suffolk Downs Press Release: $5 MILLION PURSE FOR MASSCAP IF BIG BROWN FACES CURLIN IN BATTLE OF UNBEATENS

...."Big Brown and Curlin are regarded as the two best thoroughbreds in the world and racing fans would like nothing more than to see them go head to head," said Fields. "If they are to square off, we feel that a $5 million purse is a great incentive and what better place than at Suffolk Downs in the city of Boston, the sports capital of the world."...more

Suffolk Downs in East Boston will offer a $5 million purse for this year’s Massachusetts Handicap if Big Brown sweeps the Triple Crown and both he and the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Curlin remain unbeaten in 2008 and agree to face each other......more

IEAH President Michael Iavarone confirmed today that all involved are expecting to run Big Brown in Breeders Cup Classic, despite great speculation that he will be retired after the Belmont Stakes. The anticipation of a Curlin vs. Big Brown race would certainly catch the attention of the racing world. Iavarone also hopes that it will help deflect attention away from his less than clean past. He also took the opportunity to point out that everyone was "looking for garbage," but no one was discussing all of the good that IEAH has done in the last few years including charity gifts and the building of a veterinary Hospital.

NTRA.com - Steve Haskin (Blood-Horse): Iavarone: Big Brown will race past Belmont

...“Everybody thinks we’re going to retire him, but we’re going on,” Iavarone said. “I’ve already spoken to everyone involved and we’re going to give racing a shot. We’re definitely going to point him for the Breeders’ Cup Classic (gr. I). I just don’t know if Curlin is going to want to run against us or not on a synthetic surface.”.....more

In an informal phone interview with BloodHorse.com's Jason Shandler, Mike Iavarone said that while it was not in the best interest of IEAH's "bottom line", he was prepared to race Big Brown after the Belmont Stakes "for the fans." He said that if Big Brown was healthy, he would run again.

BloodHorse.com - Jason Shandler: A Plea To Iavarone: Part 2

...I asked Iavarone the question all racing fans wanted to know: Would Big Brown really race after the Belmont or were they just leading us along? Iavarone was as candid as he could be. He said if Big Brown comes out of the Belmont in good shape, he would run again......more