Belmont Brown?

First, some old business.  The results of last week's poll ("We Are Family") asked if/when a horse's female family influences your purchase decisions.  Not surprisingly (you're reading a pedigree blog, after all), most of you said the family affects all purchase decisions, and the rest said it affects decisions on specific types of purchases.  View the full results here.

And now moving on to Big Brown's dominating performances in the first two classics.  I'm going to put up a poll -- but it's not as simple as "will he win the Triple Crown?"  You can probably find that question in a hundred other places. We'll tackle a different topic.

As you've heard (or read on BloodHorse.com), Big Brown will retire sometime this year to stand at Three Chimneys Farm. For the sake of this week's poll, we're going to assume that Big Brown wins the Belmont and retires immediately afterwards. So the question is, what will be Big Brown's 2009 stud fee?

Please answer the poll with the assumptions in mind -- but I'm looking forward to your comments about all things related.  Will he actually win the Belmont?  How do you like that his retirement was "announced" prior to the Preakness?  Do you think Big Brown will go on to run past the classic season? (Maybe a match-up with Curlin in the Breeders' Cup?)  Would a Triple Crown be good for horse racing's public perception?

Make sure to have your vote counted in this week's poll, and then share your thoughts below!