Make it a chant, Big Brown, Triple Crown.  Big Brown, Triple Crown.

North America needs a real heartwarmer right now and this horse is set to do it.  I'm going to watch him on Saturday and I hope you all do too.  It will be an historic race.  THE BOY WILL COME HOME!!!!! LET'S HEAR IT!

Keep your fingers crossed.  Rumor has it that the Japanese have shipped over a spoiler.

Here is a video of the Japanese colt winning the Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont.  By 7 lengths I believe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7tiH2g_8CQ

Re: the Japanese horse, Casino Drive, from Bloodhorse.com, a Grade 2 stakes (Belmont is a Grade 1):

"He looked sharp prepping in the Peter Pan (gr. II), winning easily in what was an admittedly weak renewal of the race. It will be a lot to ask for him to go the 12 furlongs in only his third lifetime start, especially facing the budding superstar Big Brown, but at the least his pedigree says he is not without hope."

But the chips are definitely down now and I'm with the favorite.

 Go BIG BROWN!  

I wouldn't miss it for the world!   This has got to be the one, say hello Triple Crown!

Go Go Go BIG BROWN!  

Me too, Beetree, ... You go, Big Brown!!!

Why is Big Brown so powerful???  That is the big unanswered question.  His drug tests have all been negative so we know it isn't drugs.  His trainers are professional but not rated at the top, just average supposedly, so it probably isn't a byproduct of his training.  Is his conformation better than all the other top competitors?  I don't think so.  What the heck then is going on here?  Big Brown is one awesome horse, a real powerhouse.  His extreme power and ability to accelerate reminds me of the old great John Brown who unlike Big brown was a small horse that was gelded at an early age and sold as a cull because he was way too small and the professional trainers were certain he couldn't run.  He was sold cheap.  It tuned out later that after a little training it was discovered he had almost endless go power, unlike anything seen before.  Alone he was a loafer.  But with other horses around him some competitive obsession took over and he just had to get to the front of the pack no matter what.  His ability to accelerate was impressive to say the least.  He ended up outrunning many and was the top earner accross the board for many years.  It was proven that he was never on drugs.  The top horse vets were completely confused as to why he could run so fast and had way too much power for his size.  He broke every conformation rule as far as what structure makes the horse faster and more powerful and things just made no sense.  The owner allowed the vets to xray him and much to their surprise it turns out that he had a huge heart and lungs (a greatly oversized pulmonary system, much bigger than the larger thoroughbreds), something they couldn't find any precedent for in any of his lineage.  Conclusion was that his genetics just turned out to be an aberration and a huge advantage when present with his instyinctive desire to run to the head of the pack and never let any other horse get ahead of him.  Big brown runs the same way and I wouldn't be surprised if it is for the same reason, as very few race horses can come from so far back with a bad start the way he has so many times, and accelerate with such smooth power and win.  Truly one awesome horse, perhaps as good as Secretariat. Isn't it amazing how folks just love to see such a horse come from nowhere and beat all the big named horses with better breeding, richer owners and better training?

I had the name of the small top winning horse wrong, it was actually John Henry.  Kougar knew this pointed this out.  Thank you Kougar.

I've seen articles lately comparing Big Brown to Seabiscuit.    Not only are they both "nobodies trained by nobodies" but both are heroes in a time when America needs a hero.   We need someone to cheer on and better yet that it's a little guy that came from nowhere.  Seabiscuit was a hit during the Depression and Big Brown is our new "Depression Era" boy.

He has a quarter crack in one of his rear hooves,(I think rear), per the news reports. I hope he has healed! jh

I remember John Henry...never knew 'the rest of the story' about the bigger heart. The same was true of Secretariat...bigger than normal heart for his body size. Has anyone heard how Big Borwn's foot with the crack is doing? I know they wired it or some such thing...any details? I'd love to see another horse make the Triple Crown, but hope we don't see another Barabros (sp?) type of ending.