Big Brown looks ready for coronation

BALTIMORE – Kent Desormeaux kept looking back, and no one was coming. Not even close, and once again it was Big Brown first and the rest nowhere. The Pimlico crowd of 112,222 roared, saluting greatness that is rarely seen.

It was hard to imagine that his Preakness triumph on Saturday could be easier and more impressive than his Kentucky Derby runaway, but it was.

When Desormeaux turned the muscular bay colt loose leaving the far turn, the race was over instantly. Under a stranglehold through the final sixteenth of a mile, Big Brown cantered to a 5 1/4-length romp over 39-1 long shot Macho Again, who beat 22-1 Icabad Crane by a half-length.

Big Brown’s margin could have been 15 1/4, but his rider was saving him for a shot at the first Triple Crown sweep since Affirmed in 1978.

“I asked him for his stride at the corner, and it was like deja vu from the Derby,” Desormeaux said. “It almost looked like a replay. He just set sail. I looked back between my legs, under my arms, and they were eight (lengths) back. I just stopped riding and reeled him in and made sure he didn’t pull himself up.”

Big Brown paid $2.40 after running 1 3/16 miles on a fast track in 1:54.80, although he wasn’t really running all the way. He’s 5 for 5, by a combined 39 lengths, and the $600,000 winner’s share of the $1-million purse raised his career total for IEAH Stables to more than $2.7 million.

“Bringing it back to New York is a dream come true for us,” IEAH founder and co-president Michael Iavarone said. “Now I expect the momentum to only build from here. It’s going to be a fun three weeks.”

Earlier on Saturday, IEAH announced that Big Brown will become a stallion at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Ky., after his racing days are done. Terms were not disclosed, but as Iavarone said: “I think the stud deal we made today might be able to pay for the tickets in the grandstand. I think we’re going to be a thousand deep there.”

After Big Brown broke a length slowly from post 6, Desormeaux had him on the rail in third, tracking front-running Gayego and Riley Tucker, entering the first turn.

“I was nervous as nuts the first quarter of a mile,” Desormeaux said. “He’s so strong, and at the start, he powered out with his back legs and slipped. He didn’t come out of the gate until his second stride, so Plan A and Plan B went out the window.”

Plan C worked out pretty well. As the field of 12 curled into the backstretch, Desormeaux moved out into the three-path, out of trouble, still tracking Gayego and Riley Tucker.

Big Brown is only the fourth horse to go to the Belmont Stakes undefeated, along with Majestic Prince (1969), Seattle Slew (1977) and Smarty Jones (2004). Trainer Rick Dutrow was uncharacteristically nervous about bringing his superstar back in only two weeks for the first time, but he needn’t have worried.

“He’s a freak,” Dutrow said. “He’s a champ.”

On June 7, he could become an immortal.