A horse surrounded by clowns

Saratoga Springs, New York

No telling what condition Big Brown is in after his less than impressive Haskell Invitational but Michael Iavarone, who head IEAH Stable, backed down in the face of a challenge from Curlin’s owner, Jess Jackson, to face what is considered the world’s best horse on dirt in the Woodward Stakes here on Aug. 30.

Apparently, his feet remain attached to his legs, but little else is certain except that his people, despite trainer Rick Dutrow’s recent boasts that Big Brown is “way better,” want no part of Curlin at Saratoga or anywhere else.

Big Brown’s people intend to return to the turf, a surface over which the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner won a maiden race here on the last day of the 2007 season, and the New York Racing Association will more than willingly create the opportunity – an overnight stakes at Belmont.

Imagine that. IEAH not only ducks the best dirt horse in the world – a horse, by the way, who also has more turf credentials than Big Brown based on a Grade I placement – and goes in an unlisted, ungraded and as yet unheard of grass race created from thin air in which he will face, if anyone, perhaps three or four allowance-class grass horses.

There is no way to explain with any degree of logic why the winner of two legs of the Triple Crown and the Haskell Invitational would be absent from any race of consequence prior to the Breeders’ Cup – which at this stage of the year is limited to the Travers, Woodward and Jockey Club Gold Cup – and run instead in a meaningless, manufactured race on grass.

This will do nothing to elevate the diminished image of Big Brown and much to stamp his connections as posers with money – neither horsemen nor sportsmen. If this is “what’s right for the horse,” then retirement would be the better option. That would at least spare those who actually look forward to good horses running against one another in important races the poorly executed slapstick that has become Big Brown’s career. -- PM