Big Brown Injured, Retired Before Breeders' Cup
Derby and Preakness Champ Injures Foot in Workout
Oct 13, 2008
With one less race (and victory) under his girth than the sensational and early-retired Smarty Jones, Big Brown will quit the track after suffering a grabbed quarter in his normal workout Monday morning. He came off the entry list for the Breeders' Cup Classic scheduled for October 25 in Santa Anita, where his potential match-up with reigning Horse of the Year Curlin was the most anticipated race since the staged match race between Ruffian and Foolish Pleasure in 1975.
Big Brown and Smarty Jones
Smarty Jones came to the Kentucky Derby in 2004 undefeated, and won. Big Brown approached Derby day also as an unbeaten, but with less starts and less credentials than Smarty. Still, he won in impressive fashion, lighting up under Kent Desormeaux's signal for jets after the turn and blazing home alone.
Smarty Jones, son of Elusive Quality, and Big Brown, a son of Boundary, have more quiet immediate pedigrees than some Thoroughbred greats, although their telltale houses trace to a number of great speedsters. Their careers, both ended by subtle, non-life-threatening injuries, came to sudden closes when so much more was anticipated.
IEAH's Michael Iavarone Speaks
Michael Iavarone, chief spokesman for Big Brown's majority owners, said he had a tear in his eye after Big Brown's Monmouth Stakes turf victory in September, the big bay's last race. "He showed his true heart and his true courage," Iavarone said after the narrow Monmouth win, Big Brown's turf prep for the synthetic track awaiting him in Santa Anita's Breeders' Cup World Championships.
After Monday's devastating workout result, Iavarone said, "He worked great, and when he came out of the work, I was smiling. I walked back across the track, and I saw Rick (trainer Richard Dutrow, Jr.) had this look on his face of devastation and I couldn't believe it" (Thoroughbred Times.com, Monday, October 13, 2008).
Big Brown reportedly had a three-inch chunk separated from his right front hoof.
Curlin Alone On BC Stage
In the meantime, Curlin, who had a scintillating coming out in his 2007 Triple Crown series that helped him earn Horse of the Year, has spent this season quietly gobbling up every other honor in sight. Champion in the Dubai World Cup runs, back-to-back Jockey Club Gold Cup winner, Curlin has become the consummate hero of an equine persausion.
The Thoroughbred world was certain it finally had a showdown within grasp between the head-tossing Big Brown, the ultimate in controlled, flashy independence, and confident Curlin the Sleek, king of the workmanlike performance.
Now the stage belongs solely to Curlin. The Breeders' Cup Classic may be his last race before his retirement. Unraced at two, Curlin at age three and four has strung together 11 victories from 15 starts, and $10,246,800 in career earnings, the all-time highest Thoroughbred track bankroll.
Curlin can add to his career magic by becoming the only Thoroughbred in history to win back-to-back Horse of the Year honors, as well as back-to-back Breeders' Cup Classic races.
