Tip your hat to Big Brown. Literally. And please don’t make up any excuses for your horse not winning either. Big Brown was simply the best stallion coming into this race hands down. After a much anticipated race on this first Saturday of May, jockey Kent Desormeaux rode the horse to a 4 3/4-length victory.

I had my eyes on the field since it was announced and always had my money on Big Brown to win this race. Why? Well for a few reasons actually.

1. Big Brown can be closely compared to Big Black. With the Rob and Big show ending this past month you know it was up to Big Brown to give Christopher Boykins some love. Too bad Kent Desormeaux couldn’t have sported this logo.
2. Big Brown was undefeated coming into the race. If you can’t beat ‘em, you might as well join ‘em.
3. 50 years ago a horse by the name of Tim Tam won the Derby. 100 years ago a horse by the name of Stone Street won the Derby. With Big Brown being only one of two horses in the field with two names starting with the same letter I knew he had it in him (wink).

With that stimulating analysis it was just a matter of waiting around till post time to see Big Brown bring home the crown. In all seriousness, Big Brown just seemed to have it in him. No horse has ever won the Florida Derby since the track was reconfigured in 2004 from posts 11 and 12. The turns on the track have been named the Bermuda Triangle, simply because outside horses have no chance of survival upon entering the turns. Big Brown on the other hand, snapped an 0-29 streak from horses lined up in those posts by winning the 2008 Florida Derby by nearly 5 lengths.

Triple Crown winner? Let me think. Yes. Big Brown has what it takes. Jockey Kent Desormeaux said after the race, ” It was smooth sailing all they way.” I guess it’s time to wait and see what Big Bad Mr. Brown has in store for us at Pimlico when he strides up for the Preakness Stakes.

Anyone who was hoping to see a horse win the Triple Crown will just have to wait another year before they can hope to see such a feat. Street Sense, the winner of the Kentucky Derby, was beaten yesterday at the Preakness by one time Kentucky Derby favorite Curlin.

There is no doubt Curlin was still upset that he lost the title of “favorite” as the Kentucky Derby began two weeks ago. Curlin set out for revenge and by winning the Preakness managed to be successful in his revenge attempt. It did come down to the wire for Curlin however, as he managed to pick off Street Sense at almost the very end of the race. Street Sense tried to run the same style race that was successful for him in the Derby, with a late charge, and was very nearly successful. Unfortunately for Street Sense, and for everyone who bet on him, Curlin managed to time his stretch run just a little bit better.

I’m beginning to think that as each year progresses there is becoming a lesser chance of seeing a Triple Crown winner. It’s almost like horse racing has reached a level of parity that will make it difficult to see someone dominate again. Then again, I’m not expert on horse racing or horse breeding, but hopefully next year a new colt can win our hearts.

When it was announced that the fight between Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya would be on May 5th, Las Vegas big shots everywhere started bracing for the greatest weekend ever. Aside from New Years, this may be the busiest weekend in Vegas there’s been in a long time. After all, tomorrow is Cinco De Mayo, one of the annual “Drinking Holidays” that happens to fall on a Saturday. On top of that, you have the biggest fight in years, as well as the annual Kentucky Derby.

For the weekend anyway, boxing is relevant again. With the retirement of guys like Roy Jones Jr. and Lennox Lewis, much of the steam around boxing in Vegas has gone down the shitter. UFC held big events there instead, drawing sellout crowds. But this fight has restored boxing’s moneymaking ability, for a weekend anyway. The MGM Grand is obviously sold out, with back row seats currently going for over $1000. If you want be to close to the action, you might be dropping up to $20,000 to rub shoulders with Tiger Woods, Peyton Manning, Jack Nicholson, Michael Jordan, Matthew McConaughey (ugh), and others.

Tens of thousands of people will be here, and they are expected to add more than $12 million to the local economy and that doesn’t even count what’s spent gambling.

That minor note of “what’s spent gambling” will be far more than the $12 million shelled out for shots of tequila and Coronas. The Kentucky Derby will bring in millions of dollars. There’s 20 horses, meaning countless possibilities for exactas, trifectas, and superfectas. Hell, there’s even prop bets on what color the Queen will be wearing in her trip to Churchhill Downs. But besides that, it’s a completely normal weekend in Sin City.

Chinese officials are having to shift their security focus to an unexpected event for the 2008 Olympics: the equestrian ones. Officials found what they believe is a poison dart shooting gun buried just in front of the starting gate at a Hong Kong race track. The device had twelve tubes that could be filled with poison darts which would evidently be shot up into horses at the start of a race.

I’m not quite sure if the intention is to kill or just to harm, but it would have to be some fast acting poison to affect the horses during the race. Officials believe that the device was put into the ground by local gambling syndicates that were into criminal activity. This is low though. I can understand trying to rig a race to earn money, but killing or injuring horses to do so? That’s pretty damn low.

So now the Chinese security officials are having to go the extra mile to secure the Olympic equine events. I don’t even know if you can bet on the horse events in the Olympics. For the sake of gambling addicts everywhere, I hope you can’t. There can’t be anyone who knows enough about the events to handicap them and the place bets. This would lead me to believe that the horses at the Olympics would be safe from any poison dart machines. The horses who have to race at the race track between now and then however, they might have a few more concerns.

The most publicized horse rehabilitation came to an end today. Barbaro, the Kentucky Derby winner that had a brutal leg injury in the Preakness Stakes, was put to sleep today, ending an 8 month effort to try and keep him around. His recovery won him a lot of fans but in the end,? they did what was best.

I’m not an animal rights activist or one of the people that sent Barbaro carrots. But I’d say one of the worst sports moments of last year was watching him hobble around with a disfigured leg. It was tough to watch. Ever since then, it’s been an uphill battle. Despite countless surgeries, plates and bolts inserted into his leg, it wasn’t enough to overcome chronic hoof injuries.

Barbaro won every race he entered in his career, including an impressive win in the Kentucky Derby. Was a lot of hype made about his surgeries and recovery efforts? Sure. But not many horses are seen by millions of people with his leg at some weird angle.

I was beginning to doubt the intentions of all the efforts to stabilize Barbaro’s legs. If he was going to be in pain while putting in work with female horses, then that would have been garbage. This horse won lots of money for the owner, Roy Jackson. It’s a good thing that they didn’t have him live his life in pain for the purpose of a few bucks.

Maybe this will put more heat into the argument behind synthetic racing surfaces for these horses. You don’t hear about many euthanizings but they definitely do happen. Sure, they’re just horses. But if there’s a way to limit the damn deaths this sport causes, it’s worth looking into.

I’d consider myself a novice fan of horse racing. I watch the major races and try to get to the track a couple of times a year. It’s a fun and exciting time. I only know a few horses but the fact that I knew no less than five in today’s Breeders Cup Classic gave me a reason to tune in. Most of the day was about the showdown between Bernadini, the winner of the Preakness Stakes, against Lava Man, a horse that dominated West Coast racing. But as usual, the horses that are most talked about before a big race generally are the ones that fail to deliver. Both of these horses faltered, Lava Man never even contended.

The thing that makes horse racing so difficult to predict are the variables. You simply can’t predict if a horse is going to get caught in a bad position early and never get in a position to make a break on other horses. All the experts thought Bernadini was the horse to beat and if they didn’t think he was, they probably thought Lava Man was. Chris Fowler and the random ESPN horse analysts (the ones that resurface four times a year) all thought Bernadini would be unbeatable on the break and yet, he lost in the stretch run. He lost to a horse named Invasor from Argentina that was hardly mentioned in the pre-race talk. There’s no word on whether or not Diego Maradona was watching the race. But if he was, I would expect a celebration similar to this.

Horse Racing is far more difficult to predict than sports betting. The variables are much more prevalent in any race. Maybe that’s the reason you only have to bet one or two bucks for a bet. But regardless, today’s Breeders Cup Classic made for an exciting race and once again, made fools of all the “experts.” I’m all for that.