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Big Brown Faces Older Horses on Monmouth's Turf

By GREG MELIKOV

The Monmouth Stakes on Saturday is all about one 3-year-old: Big Brown. The other horses in the 1 1/8 mile contest aren't exactly well known.

The main challenge to the son of Boundary is the New Jersey track's turf course. Can the Kentucky Derby-Preakness winner duplicate his breathtaking 2-year-old debut on the grass a year ago at Saratoga?

Big Brown broke his maiden going 1 1/16 miles in a swift 1:40 1/5 to win by 11 1/4 lengths.

"We felt this was a horse who showed tremendous quality in his debut and stamped himself as a runner we just needed to have in the barn," Michael Iavarone, co-president of IEAH Stables, said a year ago when his outfit bought 75 percent interest in the colt.

"To dominate a juvenile turf race at a distance of ground at first asking – that's something you just don't see," he added.

Fast forward to this summer. "We were looking for a grass race for him and the Monmouth grass surface should be perfect for Big Brown," Iavarone told The Asbury Park (N.J.) Press last month.

"Monmouth was cordial enough to put up a nice purse for him and the fans really took to Big Brown last time he was there," he said. That was Aug. 3 when he rebounded from dismal off-the-board Belmont Stakes performance to take the Haskell Invitational on the main track.

To lure Big Brown back, the Monmouth Stakes purse was boosted from $200,000 to $500,000. "We'll use this race to go to the synthetic surface at Santa Anita and the Breeders' Cup Classic (Oct. 25)," Iavarone said.

He has worked three times on the grass at Aqueduct, with the latest breeze on a good turf course Tuesday. He went an easy five furlongs in 1:05 1/5. His fractions were 12 2/5 for the quarter-mile and 52/ 2/5 for the half, galloping out seven furlongs in 1:22 2/5 traveling extremely wide all the way.

"He's better on the grass, he always has been," trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. told the Daily Racing Form. "He's always breezed better -- we've said that all along. When he breezes on the dirt he runs down on all four (heels). You've seen him this morning -- he had no bandages on. That's a telling tale."

Big Brown is facing older horses for the first time.

So who will challenge him?

Can you say Shakis? The 8-year-old son of Machiavellian successfully defended his Barnard Baruch Handicap title at 1 1/8 miles on the grass Aug. 23 at Saratoga. He won in the final strides after failing to hit the board in three outings this year.

Can you say Shake the Bank? The 8-year-old finished fourth in the Caesar Rodney Stakes at Delaware Park on July 13. This front-runner usually sets the pace for his stablemate Better Talk Now.

He has one thing in common with two other expected starters. Shakis finished ninth in the 1 1/4-mile Manhattan Handicap that saw Shake the Bank set the pace for the first mile of the 1 1/4 miles contest before fading to seventh.

Can you say Proudinsky? The 5-year-old has had a horrible '08, running 11th in the Manhattan and sixth in the Caesar Rodney.

Can you say Silver Tree? The 8-year-old multiple stakes winner was runner-up in the Caesar Rodney.

Others that may go at Monmouth include Get Serious, Kiss the Kid and either Ballonenostrikes or Victory Alleged.