Big Brown silences critics with Derby triumph

By Steve Ginsburg

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) - Unbeaten and still untested Big Brown emphatically answered his critics with an easy 4 1/2-length triumph in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

Skeptics said the Florida Derby champion was too lightly raced to win America's grandest event and did not have the skills to overcome a potentially horrid 20th post position.

However, the son of Boundary not only won the mile-and-a-quarter affair, he did it with ease, working his way through the field before unleashing a ferocious kick in the stretch.

His lead was increasing with every stride until he hit the wire.

"The reality is just starting to set in," Big Brown co-owner Mike Iavarone told reporters.

"I knew all week being around the horse he was going to run a big race. He was cool, calm and collected and has not missed a beat since the Florida Derby in his training."

Trainer Rick Dutrow, Jr. and veteran jockey Kent Desormeaux had expressed so much confidence this week in their Kentucky-bred bay it bordered on brashness.

Dutrow said his cockiness grew out of Big Brown's demeanor since winning the Grade I Florida Derby by five lengths in late March.

"He ate every oat we've given him since his last race," said Dutrow. "He met every breeze like clockwork. He never sweated, at all, during the whole time I trained him for this race on the plane, on the van, or coming to a new place.

"You cannot imagine how lucky we are to have this horse."

Big Brown became the first horse to win the Derby from the 20th post in nearly 80 years and the first since 1915 to win with only three races behind him.

He has now won his four career starts by a combined 33 1/2 lengths.

Next up for Big Brown is the May 17 Preakness, the middle jewel of thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown series. No horse has won all three races since Affirmed 30 years ago.

"I think he was born like this," Dutrow said of his colt. "He just separates himself from the rest. Somebody else is going to have to show up and show that they can run with him.

"I'm sure there's a horse or two out there that is going to make him run. But he was born to run, born with this talent.