A Victory Will Not Be Automatic for Kentucky Derby Winner Big Brown

BALTIMORE | There are no sure bets in horse racing.

Big Brown is this year's Preakness Stakes favorite after winning the Kentucky Derby by 4- 3/4 lengths, but Ocala trainers warn that racing history has shown the second leg of the Triple Crown is no free ride for Derby winners and Big Brown will have to earn a victory Saturday.

Preakness favorites have come up short before.

In 2007, Street Sense was the Preakness betting favorite but left George Burrows, who broke and trained the 2007 Kentucky Derby winner, a frustrated bystander as Curlin glided by the colt to cross the finish line first, a head in front of Street Sense.

"A lot of things can happen. It's horse racing," Burrows said Wednesday. "Big Brown can break bad. He can stumble, anything."

Racing history also shows the 3-year-old Big Brown doesn't have it in the bag at Pimlico Race Course.

Since 1950, fewer than 30 percent of Derby winners have been able to repeat their performance in the second jewel of the Triple Crown two weeks after their win in Louisville.

In the past 10 years, half of the Derby winners tasted defeat at Baltimore.

"I would make Big Brown the prohibitive favorite ... but [horses] are not like fighters. They don't read the press clippings," said Brent Fernung, an Ocala trainer and Journeyman Farm owner.

Ocala-based Eddie Woods bought Big Brown two years ago during the last day of Keeneland's final 2006 auction, paying $60,000 for the big, gangly yearling.

Woods brought him back to Ocala to break and train him.

"He was by a sire that wasn't so popular anymore," Woods said, adding that many buyers passed him over.

Big Brown improved slowly and steadily under Woods' training.

"The ones that stand out are usually the ones that disappoint you in the end, anyway," he said. "The ones that sneak up on you are the ones that surprise you. And he snuck up on you."

"Eventually, it was his posture and the way he moved. The whole athletic thing," Woods said during a telephone interview from his Ocala farm.

Several months later, Woods took Big Brown to Kentucky to sell, calling Marion County-based Adena Springs South manager Mark Roberts, who was also at the auction.

"He told me, 'you need to take a look at this horse,' " recalled Roberts, who was buying horses for Big Brown's current owner, Paul Pompa.

"We liked the way he moved across the race track. He was a real pretty colt," Roberts added.

The bidding reached $190,000 and Roberts bought him for Pompa.

Although Big Brown's record of four wins and no defeats is impressive, 11 of the 12 other Preakness horses this year will be coming into the race with at least a month's rest since their last races, said J.B. McKathan, an Ocala trainer and breeder.

Big Brown has had just two weeks off, something his owner Michael Iavarone admits worries him. The only other returning Derby horse will be Gayego, who finished 17th in the field of 20.

"We all know how tough it is to win the Kentucky Derby and come back in two weeks and win the Preakness," Iavarone said Wednesday at the Preakness post position draw in Baltimore. Big Brown drew the No. 7 post.

But despite just two weeks rest, Iavarone said none of the other 12 horses worry him much.

"If he gets a [good] break, I don't know of anyone that can beat him," he said. "It's more about whether Big Brown will beat himself, if he gets a bad break or gets himself into trouble."

What Big Brown has going for him is his racing ability, which has proven to be enough to scare off most of his Derby competitors.

"Any horseman would be impressed with the way Big Brown won," said George Isaacs, Bridlewood farm manager.

[ Fred Hiers writes for the Ocala Star-Banner. ]