134th Kentucky Derby Juxtaposes Joy and Sorrow as Big Brown Takes the Roses

The most exciting two minutes of sports has just passed for another year, and the story is an exceptional one.

Big Brown defied all recent Kentucky Derby patterns with a seemingly perfect run and easy win from the outside post position. He is the first horse to win from that post since the 1920s. From post position 20, and with only 3 previous races under his belt- all wins-, Big Brown made the most important race in international thoroughbred racing look like a workout breeze. He had the wonderful fortune of a clean break and enjoyed a relatively comfortable run in 5th place for the majority of the race. The recent switch of most tracks to synthetic material instead of dirt created a unique problem (as far as the Kentucky Derby is concerned) for many of the horses. For several of them this was their very first race on a nonsynthetic dirt course. The same was true for Big Brown. Thus, those in his camp were worried as to how the colt might react to having dirt thrown in his face. That concern was eliminated by his running on the outside during this time. Kent Desormeaux, his jockey, said he took a moment to respond his urging as they rounded the far turn into the stretch, but when he did there was more than enough horse. He pulled away and won by five lengths. The fractions were fast, though not blistering, and Desormeaux commented that Big Brown never extended into his full stride. There was still enough horse in him that he threw Desormeaux during the post-race canter and wasn't even breathing hard.

Big Brown has had issues with cracking hooves in the past, but if his special glue-on rubber shoes continue to absorb the shock for him, if he can continue to avoid the dirt-in-face question, and he avoids other injury, he may be the first Triple Crown winner in 30 years. A lot of ifs? Yes, but that's what the sport is about.