Friday, 06.06.08
The Winner Nobody Loves
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Big Brown has secured the endorsements of everyone from Hooter's to UPS. He just can't seem to get anyone else to like him. Capturing the public imagination involves a delicate alchemy for any athlete, human or equine, but Big Brown has failed where predecessors like Barbaro succeeded for reasons both competitive and commercial. It's not just that his rivals in the two previous legs of the circuit have looked like a pack of stray dogs, or that he prevailed each time with only marginal speed. He's also backed by a rogue's gallery of cheats and crooked moneymen who have alienated casual fans and racing professionals alike -- no easy feat in a sport dependent on cheats and crooked moneymen for its vitality.
The last horse that had a shot at greatness in the Belmont, Smarty Jones, landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated, drew unheard-of TV ratings, and became the object of national adoration in 2004. A record 120,139 fans (myself among them) packed Belmont Park to cheer on the undersized horse from Philly with an elderly car dealer for an owner, a no-name trainer, and a hard-luck jockey. And then they watched Smarty lose by one length to a 36-1 long shot named Birdstone, a finish that racing writers didn't hesitate to describe as "heart-breaking" and that generated mounds of sympathetic mail from across the country for its trainer. Edgar Prado, the jockey who rode Birdstone to victory, actually felt the need to apologize.
Big Brown, by contrast, is the property of an outfit called International Equine Acquisitions Holdings, Inc. The group, which says it aspires to create a $100 million horse racing "hedge fund," is headed by the tanned and well-gelled Michael Iavarone, whom IEAH's Web site touts as "high-profile investment banker on Wall Street." In reality, Iavarone's "investment" career was defined by selling penny stocks for at least three firms that ran into regulatory or legal trouble. He was fined and suspended by the National Association of Securities Dealers for making unauthorized trades, and in 2004 had more than half a million dollars in tax liens and court judgments leveled against him (later satisfied). IEAH has yet to encounter an opportunity for commercial exploitation it hasn't taken, and has wasted no time in ridding itself of the encumbrances of tact and sportsmanship generally prized by the sport's high-level moneymen.
Big Brown's trainer, Rick Dutrow, lives like a pirate, rarely stops boasting, and injects his horses with as many performance-enhancing drugs as the law allows. (And then some: He has been suspended or fined at least once a year since 2000 for offenses ranging from giving his horses mepivacaine, an illegal pain killer, to falsifying practice records.) Ian McKinlay, a specialist brought in to repair Big Brown's injured left front hoof two weeks ago, assured an anxious nation that Dutrow wouldn't run the horse to death by noting that "he's certainly worth a lot more alive than he is dead."
But perhaps the biggest knock against the crowd in Big Brown's corner is that they view the animals solely in terms of their investment potential, and thus are willing to pump them full of drugs, race them too often too early in their careers, and sell them out to stud as soon as they can profitably do so. (Iavarone has said that the group has sold the breeding rights to Big Brown for more than $60 million, on a $2.5 million investment).
Americans can only abide so much commercialism in a sport. Witness the furor when Bain Capital tried to buy the NHL, or when FedEx tried to persuade the NBA to let them name its Memphis franchise the "Express." The public may tolerate stadiums named for pet food companies, or billionaire sheiks buying ponies to satisfy their competitive urges, but we tend to recoil when sports owners shamelessly sacrifice the quality of their rosters for baser commercial aspirations -- and that may be Big Brown's ultimate undoing in the popular imagination. Even the name "Big Brown" was chosen in homage to UPS, a major client of minority owner Paul Pompa Jr., who owns a Brooklyn trucking business. Who could love a horse like that?
Even so, the futures book at BetUs predicts a bigger crowd for Big Brown's shot at glory than the one that cheered Smarty Jones, and the elusive mystique of a Triple Crown victory may be enough for racing fans to overlook the excesses of the horse's slick entourage. But winning won't come easy. The last ten horses to prevail at both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness have been foiled by Belmont's extended slog. And though he remains undefeated, Big Brown has been pushed into three huge races in the span of five weeks, and he'll be up against the estimable Casino Drive, a Japanese horse that, his owners claim, has spent all of his short life preparing for just this race.
And even if he does pull it off, it may not be enough to soften the hearts of racing fans. Big Brown is currently favored at 2-5. You can't make much money on odds like that.
A year to rememberWilliam Leggett recalls the classic duels between Affirmed and Alydar during the 1978 Triple Crown. |
Perilous ridesThe Los Angeles Times discusses the health dangers and poor working conditions jockeys face. |
Cashing inWilliam Spain explains how this Triple Crown bid has paid off for the horse racing (and gambling) industry. |
Racing retrospectiveIn a 2005 New York Times piece, Bill Finley looks back at 100 years of the Belmont Stakes. |
(3)
Big Brown is eminently likeable. He is a strong, good-looking bay, with an incredible stride and big, goofy ears. He seems very intelligent and has a kind eye. You should change the headline of your article to Nobody Loves Big Brown's Connections. Leave the horse alone, he is every bit as likeable as Barbaro, and has proven he is just as talented.
A couple of things, Tim. First, your piece contains no sound from any person. Your supposition is likely correct but you offer no one here to back it up. Also, Snitch is right. The setup of Brown's owners or connections as commercial pirates is absloutely true --I'd argue the groom and exercise rider and jockey fall outside this thesis. But I'd also guess there are plenty of Americans who like the actual horse, and the classy and dominant manner in which he has won each race. Well-written piece but I'd offer this:
Don't hate the player. Hate the game.
Thanks, Slew.
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It is sleazy money mongers and dope head, loud mouth trainers who are ruining the sport. Racing IS and should continue to be a sport, not an industry or investment portfolio.
Posted by Paula | June 6, 2008 4:14 PM