Big Brown may be special, but he has doubters, too

Gail Burton, Associated Press

Preakness entry Hey Byrn gently pulled on the sweatshirt of assistant trainer Frank Perez to keep him from leaving the stakes barn at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on Tuesday. The 133rd running of the Preakness will be held Saturday and Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown will be heavily favored.

By MIKE PHILLIPS, Miami Herald/MCT

Last update: May 13, 2008 - 11:34 PM

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133RD preakness stakes

5:05 p.m. Saturday at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore • TV: Ch. 11

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Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey was on the backside at Belmont in New York on Sunday morning, the day after the Kentucky Derby, and he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"When I got to the barn that Sunday, everyone was talking about Big Brown winning the Triple Crown," McGaughey said. "I just thought it was funny. People ask me if I think he will win the Triple Crown, and I say no. It's just so rarely done.

"Is he a good horse? Yes. Is he a talented horse? Yes. Do I think he has a chance to win the Triple Crown? Yes, he has a chance," McGaughey said. "He's a special kind of horse, but it's only been done 10 times in 130 years. The chance of it happening, no I don't think it will happen."

That is what Big Brown is running against now -- the ageless odds of history and racing lore. A long list of great horses have fallen short of winning horse racing's most coveted prize -- the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont.

No one has won the Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978 -- 30 years and countless horses ago.

Still, Big Brown has created that kind of buzz and he will take that and more to the gate Saturday at Pimlico in Baltimore, when he attempts to win the second leg in the Preakness.

"I think he will win the Preakness, and if you're asking me if he's got a good chance to win the Triple Crown, absolutely," said Bennie Stutts Jr., whose Smooth Air finished second to Big Brown at Gulfstream Park in the Florida Derby and finished 11th in the Kentucky Derby.

"We could have run around the track again at the Florida Derby and no one was going to catch Big Brown," Stutts said.

Big Brown has won only four races, and after winning the Kentucky Derby by 4¾ lengths, has beaten the four fields by a combined 33¾ lengths. But he didn't just win the Derby. He became the first horse since 1929 to win from the 20th post position, and the first horse to win in his fourth start since Regret in 1915.

Trainer Eddie Plesa points out a big field has entered the Preakness, so other must feel he is beatable. "After the way he won the Derby you would expect a field of six or seven horses, and we're going to have 12 or 13," he said.

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