A PRIZE TOO GOOD NOT TO HAVE A CONTEST (continued...):

Okay, no one had Macho Man in the Preakness so we'll all try again in the Belmont--we'll re-post the contest closer to the race so you know the field and odds:

Can Big Brown Avoid the Fate of Smarty Jones? (MAX WATMAN, May 30, 2008, NY Sun)

It's been four years since we clung to the idea that Smarty Jones would take the Triple Crown in 2004. Four years since we last confronted the exciting possibility that we were about to end the drought since Affirmed, 30 years ago. I was certain Smarty would take it. Ron Turcotte, who rode Secretariat in the most smashing Belmont victory anyone will every see, promised us that Smarty would win the race by 25 lengths. Everyone was around the bend. We were a nation in love. A friend of mine dropped thousands of dollars for two good seats at the race and flew in from California to watch it. Down by the rail on the grandstand side, I stood with kids from Ohio and Virginia and Wisconsin. There were people there who go to the races all the time, and people who had never been to a race before, and all of them were there waving blue and white Smarty fans in the air; all of them were there to grab a look at what we were sure was about to be a moment in horse racing history. The horse had never lost a race, why would he lose this one? He'd already beaten all the best horses in the business, who was going to come out of the woodwork and beat him now?

When they came onto the stretch, Smarty had the lead, and Belmont Park came apart. One hundred and fifty thousand people were jumping up and down and screaming with joy; it shook the earth, it was one of the best moments of my life.

We all know how that story ends. Birdstone caught him. Edgar Prado apologized in the winner's circle.

Instead of crowning a new king, we shrugged our shoulders and added an entry to the other list, the list of near-misses. I remember the surreal scene back at the barns, everyone kicking around in a funk, a light rain falling in the dusk. We were worn out, defeated. I shook the hand of John Servis, the trainer of Smarty Jones, and congratulated him — it'd been a hell of a run. The dream was over.

We've got another live one, another Big Horse. Big Brown hasn't lost a race. Big Brown has beaten all of the best of his generation (save one). Big Brown is going to shake the earth at Belmont Park next Saturday.

Are we primed for another disappointment? Or is this going to be the one?

MORE:
Big day ahead for Big Brown (JIM O'DONNELL, 5/16/08, suntimes.com )

If Big Brown's ''straight and narrow'' continues Saturday, he will win the Preakness. In his four career starts, the son of the unheralded Boundary has prevailed by an average of more than eight lengths. In his last two -- the Florida Derby and Kentucky Derby -- he won from the extreme outside starting position. At Churchill Downs, the streaming post-toastie appeared positively transcendent, downing 19 flailing candidates as easily as Barack Obama in a Hyde Park runoff.

Pimlico linemaker Frank Carulli -- no duck -- put Big Brown up as the 1-2 favorite atop the field of 13. Only Paulo Lobo's Gayego (8-1), a well-jostled 17th in Louisville, resaddles from the Kentucky Derby. Seekers trying to find a key to beating Big Brown can cloud-and-clog toward a handful of pegs:

• • Two of the last three odds-on Preakness favorites were beaten: the ill-fated Barbaro (1-2 in 2006) and the ill-ridden Fusaichi Pegasus (1-5 in 2000). Smarty Jones (3-5 in 2004) won.

• • In his brief career, Big Brown never has raced on fewer than 24 days rest. At Pimlico, he will be going postward only 14 days after his Run for the Roses.

• • A Kentucky Derby winner has not won the Preakness since 2004. Harborside heroes in the interim were Curlin (2007, third in the Derby), Bernardini (2006, a new shooter in the Preakness) and Afleet Alex (2005, third in the Derby).

• • There are two P-ODage qualifiers -- Big Brown and Gayego.

Big Brown is the class of the Preakness field (Steve Ginsburg, 5/16/08, Reuters)

"It looks like it's Big Brown's party," Yankee Bravo trainer Paddy Gallagher said of the $1 million Preakness at the Pimlico Race Course. "We're just glad to be a part of it."

Big Brown rolled to an easy 4-3/4-length victory at the Derby two weeks ago and, out of respect or just common sense, almost all of his rivals have decided to skip the Preakness.

Only Arkansas Derby winner Gayego, who finished 17th in the 20-horse race at Churchill Downs, decided to make the trip to Baltimore for the middle jewel of U.S. racing's Triple Crown.

Trainer Richard Dutrow, Jr. appeared as confident of his colt as the Pimlico morning-line oddsmaker, who made Big Brown a prohibitive 1-2 favorite for the 133rd Preakness.

"Since he's come out of the Derby, up to this minute, I'm very, very happy with the horse," Dutrow told reporters on Thursday. "He's just done everything that you would want a horse to do coming out of a race like that.

"He hasn't missed an oat. He's aggressive with his gallops. It's all good."

If Big Brown can win the Derby, Preakness and the June 7 Belmont Stakes in New York he would become the first horse since Affirmed in 1978 to claim the coveted Triple Crown.

While we hadn't planned on a Preakness contest, we just got two copies of Steven Pressfield's new novel, Killing Rommel, to give away (courtesy of Authors on the Web). We're big fans and this one looks like a combo of The Eagle Has Landed and Rogue Male.

Pick your top two finishers in the race and we'll give out some more books.

MORE:
-ESSAY: The Last Honorable War (Steven Pressfield, April 24, 2008, Military.com)
INTERVIEW: World Class novelist Steven Pressfield previews his latest masterpiece, Killing Rommel (Hugh Hewitt, May 02, 2008)
-PODCAST: Steven Pressfield's New Book "Killing Rommel" (Military.com, May 6, 2008)
-REVIEW: of Killing Rommel: A Novel of War by Stephen Pressfield (Mark Whittington, published May 07, 2008 , Associated Content)
-REVIEW: of Killing Rommel (Kirkus Reviews)
-REVIEW: of Killing Rommel (Michael Lee, BookPage)

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 30, 2008 4:04 PM