Big Brown's the biggest star in this race

Sport pins hopes of a Triple Crown on Derby winner

Rocky Wire Reports

Friday, May 16, 2008

Like any true A-lister, he kept the masses waiting for hours.

Then Big Brown made his grand entrance.

Accompanied from the airport by a police escort with sirens flashing, the dazzling colt pulled into the Pimlico Race Course shortly after 8 p.m. Wednesday and headed for the prime spot of real estate on the grounds - the corner barn occupied each year by the winner of the Kentucky Derby.

For added flair, two UPS trucks flanked the convoy as it rolled through the gates. Those boxy, brown trucks never had made a delivery quite like this one.

The entire sport has its Triple Crown hopes pinned on the star who claimed the racing stage for himself after a 43/4-length victory May 3 at Churchill Downs.

Right now, he has the fanfare that goes along with the luxe life of a Derby winner and the odds- on favorite for the Preakness. It will continue, as long as he wins today and moves on to the Belmont Stakes in three weeks.

"He gets love all the time," trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. said.

And why not? The rest of the field has endured a week being treated like lowly subjects, their names recognizable to few outside their inner circle.

Only Gayego decided to follow Big Brown from the Derby - and he finished 17th in it.

"Big Brown's a serious horse," said Ken McPeek, who trains Racecar Rhapsody.

The Big Brown bravado is what separates the lead-up to Preakness from the Kentucky Derby.

"The minute he arrived," said Chick Lang, Pimlico's former general manager, "he was a celebrity."

Dutrow loves the spotlight, and he has added plenty of his own hype with brash boasts that Big Brown is the horse to beat today. He already has professed to dreaming about the Triple Crown and how awesome it would feel for a horse to sweep the Derby, Preakness and Belmont for the first time in 30 years.

"I believe he enjoys the attention," Dutrow said, referring to his star pupil. "I believe he likes meeting new people."

Dutrow said he was honored to have Big Brown sleep in that barn for a few nights.

"When we used to be stabled here just a few barns away, I used to come over here when all the big horses would come in and I would always dream about having one in that stall," the Maryland native said. "It's thrilling."

NUMBERS GAME: The scratch of Behindatthebar on Friday because of a bruised foot reduced the Preakness field to 12. The revised post positions could be good news for Big Brown and Hey Byrn.

Behindatthebar had post No. 5, so every horse to his outside moves in one slot. Big Brown slides into No. 6, the stall from which a record 15 Preakness winners have started since position records first were kept in 1909.

Hey Byrn, the outside horse in the starting gate, shifts to post No. 12. Thirteen hasn't been a lucky Preakness number: No horse has won from that spot. Three won from No. 12, most recently Afleet Alex in 2005.

NO STEROIDS: A steroid test for filly Eight Belles has come back negative.

The Kentucky Horse Racing Authority announced that test results showed no traces of steroids in the filly, who was euthanized after finishing second to Big Brown in the Kentucky Derby on May 3 after breaking ankles in both front legs.

The field

PP Horse Jockey Trainer Owner(s) Odds

1 Macho Again Julien Leparoux Dallas Stewart West Point Thoroughbreds Inc. 20-1

2 Tres Borrachos Tyler Baze Beau Greely John Greely IV, Robert Shapiro 30-1 and Philip Houchens

3 Icabad Crane Jeremy Rose H. Graham Motion Earle Mack 30-1

4 Yankee Bravo Alex Solis Patrick Gallagher David Beinstock, Charles Winner, 15-1 Richard Duggan and Harlequin Stables

6 Racecar Rhapsody Robby Albarado Kenneth McPeek Jerry Carroll, Stanley Kaplan, 30-1 Ronald Plattner and Mark Guilfoyle

7 Big Brown Kent Desormeaux Richard Dutrow Jr. IEAH Stables and Paul Pompa Jr. 1-2

8 Kentucky Bear Jamie Theriot Reade Baker Bear Stables 15-1

9 Stevil John Velazquez Nick Zito Robert LaPenta 30-1

10 Riley Tucker Edgar Prado William Mott Zayat Stables 30-1

11 Giant Moon Ramon Dominguez Richard Schosberg Albert Fried Jr. 30-1

12 Gayego Mike Smith Paulo Lobo Cubanacan Stables 8-1

13 Hey Byrn Charles Lopez Eddie Plesa Jr. Beatrice Oxenberg 20-1

* Weight: All will carry 126 pounds. Distance: 13/16 miles. * Post: 4:09 p.m. MDT today. * TV: KUSA- Channel 9 coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. * Purse: $1 million. First place: $650,000. Second place: $200,000. Third place: $100,000. Fourth place: $50,000. Note: Behindatthebar has been scratched.