Final Turn : big brown

Rooting Interest - by Lenny Shulman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:41:00 GMT

Why do racing fans coalesce around one horse and not another? Favorability can be as simple as a catchy name (Smarty Jones) or backing an underdog (Funny Cide). Unfavorability, since horses themselves don’t usually rub us the wrong way, is tied to the animal’s human connections.

Nobody should question Big Brown's talent. Yet, other than vying for the Triple Crown, he has not captured the public’s fancy in the manner of the above-mentioned pair. In fact, some people were rooting for him to lose at Belmont, despite the fact his bust there cost the sport millions in lost marketing and advertising. So why hasn’t he become the people’s horse?

The most publicized of his connections is his trainer, Rick Dutrow Jr. Like all of us, Dutrow is an imperfect human being. Unlike many, he cares little about hiding his imperfections. He’s had issues feeding himself and his horses drugs, and talks about it. His rider throws in a clunker in the Belmont, and Dutrow wails on him. The man says what he thinks.

This trait, which I find refreshing, has been portrayed by most as a negative. Apparently, folks prefer bland and covert. If you think Dutrow is the only famous trainer who is familiar with an equine medicine cabinet, you’re wrong. The others just don’t talk about suspensions and steroids.

Dutrow is brash, abrasive. Before the Derby, he told everyone he had the best 3-year-old in the land. “Oh, he’s going to find out what a humbling experience the Derby can be,” said the provincials.

So Dutrow’s crime became being right. He does have the best 3-year-old in the country. But his media detractors kept grumbling about the guy who gave them column after column, biting the hand that fed them quotes.

Now, the owners. You don’t have to be Mother Teresa for your horse to be admired. Roy Chapman (Smarty Jones) wasn’t exactly warm and fuzzy, and moved Fords for a living. But Mike Iavarone and Richard Schiavo of IEAH Stables? Too New York? Too ethnic?

Nine years ago, Iavarone was fined, censured, and suspended by securities regulators for making unauthorized stock trades. This year, he lied about his Wall Street background while attempting to cover up his history. You want to dislike him and his horses? Have at it.
But know that he and Schiavo are opening an equine hospital under the direction of the respected Dr. Patty Hogan that will save horses’ lives. He and Schiavo have donated money to the children of a New York cop shot in the line of duty. And unlike industry bureaucrats who have failed to do so, they are succeeding in bringing young professionals into this sport.

How about Big Brown’s other three owners? Paul Pompa Jr. gets up in the dark to get to his Brooklyn trucking business at 6:30 each morning. He started small in horses, and then hit a home run with Big Brown. He’s funny, unassuming, cooperative, and one of the nicest guys I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.

And what of IEAH partners Andrew Cohen and Gary Tolchin? Cohen, 51, has two kids and works on Wall Street. He owned a couple of trotters, and bought into his first Thoroughbred four years ago. “I own parts of 20 now. I got a little carried away, which is a good thing.”
Cohen donned jockey silks for the winner’s circle photo after Kip Deville won at Keeneland last year. “It wasn’t the most flattering photo I’ve ever taken,” laughed the corpulent Cohen. “It was the first big race I’d won, and I got so excited I didn’t know what I was doing. I’m having the time of my life.”

Tolchin, 48, is a father of three from the Bronx. His father, Sam, worked nights, and the only time Gary and his brother saw him was weekends, when they’d go to the races.

“We didn’t have money growing up; my father would bet $2 or $4, but we had a great time at the track,” Tolchin said. “Those were special times for the three of us.”

Agreeing that life is too short, Gary’s wife gave him the OK to invest in Big Brown. “You love it; just do it,” she told him.

Sam Tolchin passed away last year. “My only regret is he’s not here for this run,” said Gary. “He might bet $6 win, $4 place on Big Brown. I’m sure he’s looking down on us now and going crazy.”

So go ahead and root against Big Brown, if it really makes you feel any better.

Telling Time - by Evan Hammonds

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:38:00 GMT

It’s amazing that six weeks can go by so quickly, yet also seem like an eternity.

Was it just last month, or was it last year when we saw Big Brown bound past us on the Churchill Downs backstretch during a chilly morning in Louisville? Was it just a few weeks ago, or was it a couple of months ago that we witnessed a coronation off the Northern Parkway in Baltimore? We’re certain about June 7 on Long Island, witnessing the Belmont Stakes (gr. I) in sticky, steamy Elmont, N.Y.

This year’s Triple Crown run had more twists than a New York pretzel, and was twice as salty.

When looking back over the ’08 run by Big Brown, here’s hoping the industry will have moved forward on a couple of horse health-related issues.

First, with the tragic breakdown of Eight Belles following her dazzling runner-up effort in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), industry leaders must not lose sight of the need to take steps to make our sport safer for its participants. Just as the breeding industry came together back in the spring of 2001 to unravel the mysteries of mare reproductive loss syndrome, the key is communication. We must share all information, good and bad, for the betterment of the sport. The newly formed Thoroughbred Safety Committee is a good start. So, too, are the conversations and research that must continue regarding synthetic track surfaces.

The issue of steroids in racehorses must be addressed, promptly, and on a national level. I can imagine few in the game who would like to see more trainers and owners interviewed on national television discussing the pros and cons of Winstrol.

Big Brown’s disappointing run in the Belmont, for the umpteenth time giving fans a handful of feathers instead of a Triple Crown winner, teaches us just how special it is to win the Triple Crown. We don’t want to hear any talk about changing the span between races. It’s supposed to be hard to win it.

While the five weeks puts three demanding races very close together, the three weeks between the Preakness (gr. I) and Belmont can slow to a crawl. As this season’s Belmont approached, and with Big Brown’s quarter crack getting better ratings than “American Idol,” one could almost watch the bloom come off the rose of Team Brown at Barn 2 at Belmont.

The finale was the colt’s five-furlong work June 3, a minute flat, followed by a six-furlong gallop out in 1:14 2⁄5. The drill left more than a few raised eyebrows. A 14-second eighth before the Belmont? Galloping out?

Secretariat wouldn’t have done that. Big Red worked a mile in 1:34 4⁄5, then blew out a half-mile the Wednesday before the Belmont in :46 3⁄5.<->Seattle Slew worked six furlongs in 1:11 3⁄5 the Tuesday before his Belmont, and blew out three furlongs in :35 4⁄5 the morning of the race.

Big Brown, in front of a curious crowd the morning of June 6, galloped slooowly around the Belmont Park oval and then headed back to the barn. It was at that point it became questionable as to how much juice was left in the lemon. We found out the next day.
A reflective Kent Desormeaux, who 10 years ago had come within the shadow of the wire of winning the Triple Crown with Real Quiet, addressed the media following Big Brown’s defeat.

“For him it was a slow pace,” he said. “When I got outside going into the first turn, I said, ‘That’s it; the race is over.’ ”

He, like the rest of us, was confident.

“Then, when I asked him to engage, I was done. I had no horse. Fortunately, there are no popped tires; he’s just out of gas.”
He then paid the Triple Crown phenomenon quite a compliment.

“The end result is I can’t fathom what kind of freaks those 11 Triple Crown winners were,” the Hall of Fame jockey said. “It’s unfathomable to me. I won the Derby with some pressure, I won the Preakness in an armchair ride, and for whatever reason he wasn’t resilient enough today. This is unknown to me because he’s supposed to be a mile-and-a-half-horse; he’s supposed to be a distance horse.
“With that being said, these occasions for me have only made me realize how awesome those horses were.”
That’s why we’ll be back next spring.

Great Pretenders - by E.S. Lamoreaux III

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:53:00 GMT

No matter what happens in the June 7 Belmont Stakes (gr. I), the 2008 Triple Crown season will always be defined by the triumph and tragedy of the heir apparent crown prince, Big Brown, and the fallen heroine, Eight Belles. And tradition says that this Belmont, factoring in Big Brown’s pre-race hoof injury, will come up as a “hold your breath,” arduous race that’s guaranteed not to be won in a New York minute.

After a diet of mint juleps and crab cakes, there is less pomp and a heavy dose of New York grit when the racing schedule reaches Belmont. You’ll need all your fingers and half your toes to count the TC “can’t miss” favorites that didn’t make it here.

I was a CBS News television producer covering the Triple Crown of 1969 with commentator Heywood Hale “Woodie” Broun. Majestic Prince, like Seattle Slew after him and Smarty Jones after him and, yes, Big Brown, was undefeated heading into the Belmont. But “The Prince” had suffered a leg injury in the Preakness and his trainer, Johnny Longden, wasn’t sure he was sound enough to run.

With the first undefeated Thoroughbred trying to win the Triple Crown, there was enormous pressure on owner Frank McMahon to go for it. Longden and McMahon argued openly about it. Not only had there not been a TC winner since Citation in 1948, but McMahon’s wife, gossip columnist Betty Betts, wanted desperately to get into The Jockey Club, and saw Majestic Prince as her ticket. On the eve of the race, Woodie Broun interviewed McMahon, who was so nervous and perhaps hungover, that he kept referring to the TC as the “Cripple Crown.” Majestic Prince finished second and never raced again.

Fast forward two years, when Canonero II became the next pretender to the “Cripple Crown” and the last before Secretariat. Canonero was unique in that he had done all of his racing in Venezuela and became a hero to the entire Latin American world. Broun, one of America’s great wordsmiths, was on the scene once again, and wrote the following in his sports memoir Tumultuous Merriment: “The thing one notices at the Belmont…is the very New Yorkness of it. Like the old Manchu Empire, it can swallow up all the invaders that come and either absorb them or outnumber them so that they are no longer visible.

“The great exception at Belmont was the June day in 1971 when Canonero II tried for the Triple Crown. He had been bred in Kentucky to an unfashionable English sire, and because he had a gimpy leg had been sold as a yearling for something like $1,600. This modest beginning may have been the essence of his subsequent appeal. This was a price that poor people could understand.”

Broun wrote that huge numbers of Latinos descended on Belmont Park that day, “a great mass of people, many of whom had never been to the races, with nothing in common but their language and a vague sense that today they were going to show the Anglos and have a good time while they did it. Hundreds of them brought musical instruments and long before the first race, bongo drums were echoing in places where nothing was usually heard but the murmur of old horseplayers mumbling inaccurate information to each other.

“In Caracas the president of Venezuela stood ready to make a speech to the whole world about the connection between a 3-year-old horse and his country’s eminence and the drums were rattling all over Belmont Park.

“Oddly and sadly Canonero’s fourth-place finish that day was one of his bravest races. Subsequent examination showed him to have been suffering from some odd but debilitating illness, and it appeared that he ran through agony and exhaustion of such shattering intensity that he was unable to raise his head for weeks after the race. The drums stopped beating, however, and the crowd straggled home, while the president in Caracas called for his limousine and cursed racing luck, not the first head of state to discover that power ends where chance begins.”

My friend Woodie Broun wrote those words nearly 30 years ago. Funny how they resonate today in both Thoroughbred racing and American politics.

E.S. Lamoreaux III is a four-time Eclipse Award winner and the longtime executive producer of CBS News Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt.

Feeling the Chill - by Evan I. Hammonds

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:47:00 GMT

Cold lies the heart of Thoroughbred racing following Eight Belles’ untimely end after Kentucky Derby 134. The dark side of the toughest game in town showed itself once again on the national stage, this time in the nation’s biggest race.

Even prior to her tragic ending as the shadows began to lengthen May 3, there seemed to be a chilly vibe to this year’s Run for the Roses in Louisville. And by chill, we don’t mean a hip coolness desired by either Churchill Downs or NBC.

Two of the better story lines to this year’s Derby were both veteran performers. The tale of 70-year-old Bennie Stutts Jr. bringing Smooth Air—his first horse to the Derby—was a gem, as was the return of the New Orleans saints—Louie Roussel III and Ronnie Lamarque, back 20 years after taking two-thirds of the Triple Crown with Risen Star. While both delivered the goods to the media, sharing with us their great stories, they are closer to hip-replacement surgery than to playing to a targeted younger audience.

The weather was a major factor to the week, as on the Tuesday before the Derby, the temperature was a bone-chilling 38 degrees as a crowd gathered on the backstretch. Standing on a wooden stand by the main gap, IEAH Stables’ principals Michael Iavarone and Richard Schiavo took in the scene at the Downs for the first time as owners. They watched as Court Vision, the colt they co-own with WinStar Farm, galloped past, Iavarone in a borrowed coat, Schiavo trying to keep warm in a windbreaker.

While Schiavo told us, “we came here unprepared for the cold,” they did come prepared for the Derby with the right horse, Big Brown, who was in Barn 22, cordoned off behind a roll of yellow police tape.

The downpour midway through the race program on Oaks day—which was expected to come at midnight—threw a wet blanket on the six-figure crowd, most of whom had dispersed by the time Proud Spell ran off with the main prize. Leaving the friendly confines following the Oaks saw traffic that could be considered normal for a Friday afternoon. The wet conditions the next morning kept the usual call to the post to the infield until much later in the afternoon. Throughout the main facility, it seemed to take a long time for the crowd to get caught up in the Derby mood.

However, it may have been much more than the weather that kept a few people from visiting the Twin Spires or the Derby city last weekend. A downturn in many sectors of the nation’s economy—call it what you will—and unprecedented fuel prices taking a chunk out of people’s discretionary income may be to blame. More than a few people noted area hotel rooms weren’t as scarce as before and local restaurants seemed a little more accessible than in years past.

Away from Churchill Downs, many online players were forced to sit chilly with their advance deposit wagering accounts, which didn’t help matters either. The fans are finding it tough to play…and perhaps tougher to watch.

With Barbaro’s breakdown in the 2006 Preakness Stakes (gr. I), followed by his eight-month agonizing struggle for life, and George Washington’s tragic demise in the middle of the stretch at Monmouth Park at last fall’s Breeders’ Cup, racing faces thousands of disenfranchised fans and stares down yet another “code red” in the public relations department. The fact the organization PETA is joining in the fray is cause for major concern.

The Cold War of synthetic surfaces versus dirt tracks continues to rage. Last year’s Derby exacta of Street Sense and Hard Spun was filled out by horses that had made their previous start on Polytrack. This year was a reversal of 180 degrees, as the superfecta was void of a horse that had ever even started on a synthetic track.

One last chilling thought on the Derby is the closest a colt could get to this year’s winner at the finish was 8 1⁄4 lengths. About 48 hours after the Run for the Roses, none of them was likely to head to Baltimore to take him on again in the May 17 Preakness.

Could an undefeated Triple Crown winner help break the ice?