Equine Daily--The Equine World's Top Headline of the Day

Big Brown is all set for the Monmouth Stakes this Saturday.\

The race will be run on grass, and is meant to be a transition from dirt to the synthetic surfaces of Santa Anita Park, where the Breeder's Cup will be held this year. Big Brown has never run on these surfaces. It is also to give him a race that will be soft on his feet. Dutrow reports the horse has had five or six quarter cracks [cracks in the hoof] since he has had him.

TVG will show the race live. Among Big Brown's rivals are Kiss the Kid, Proudinsky, Hotstufanthensone, Shakis, and Get Serious. Silver Tree, Shake the Bank, Bellonenostrikes and Victory Alleged are all considering the race. The purse will be boosted from $200,000 to $500,000 if Big Brown goes to the post.

Rick Dutrow, Big Brown's trainer, was questioned why he didn't run Big Brown in a graded stakes, like the Travers. He responded that they [IEAH stables] wanted a race exactly 40 days before the Breeder's Cup Classic. After looking around, they couldn't find a race that suited them, and asked New York, Philly and Monmouth to come up with something. They did, and IEAH stables chose Monmouth, due to their liking for the grass track there.

Obviously the talk went off onto having a match race between Big Brown and Curlin; the talk has been going on for months, with IEAH stables trying to invite Curlin into the Breeder's Cup Classic, and Curlin's owners trying to invite them into a race after that. Dutrow stated that unless Curlin ran in the Breeder's Cup Classic, then it would have to be a race afterward, but both owners were going to try and get together to please the fans. He stated that IEAH stables will use and standards for a match race, so for them, a match race is not a problem. However, they weren't really concerned about it now. Right now they were driving toward the Breeder's Cup Classic.

The Breeder's Cup races will be featured October 24 and 25, with the Classic on the 25. It will be shown live on ESPN television.

See you then, Big Brown! ~Equine Lover