Rooting For Big Brown Is Your Patriotic Duty

As if hooters wasn’t enough reason for you to root for Big Brown to complete the Triple Crown on Saturday, consider it your duty as an American. Because the stiffest competition that Big Brown is expected to face in the Belmont is a horse brought over from Japan especially for the purposes of beating him. The horse is named Casino Drive, he’s owned by video-game mogul Hidetoshi Yamamota, and his broodmare was Better Than Honour. If that name rings a bell to you in regards to the Belmont, well, it should – Better Than Honour is the dam of the last two Belmont winners, Jazil and Rags to Riches. A third consecutive Belmont victory would be unprecedented for foals from a single dam, so like Big Brown, Casino Drive will be looking to make history in Saturday’s race.↵
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↵With Casino Drive coming over from Japan in April and billed as something of a super-talented mystery horse, the potential Belmont showdown has been garnering King Kong vs. Godzilla type jokes for a month now. In his U.S. debut, Casino Drive did nothing to dispel the hype, “saying Sayonara to the field” in a 5 3/4 lengths win at the $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont on May 10th.
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↵Adding to the drama in the Big Brown/Casino Drive question is the fact that Big Brown’s regular jockey Kent Desmoreaux also has ridden Casino Drive. He was on the horse for his win at the Peter Pan, and he was plenty impressed with the performance. “We’ve got our hands full,” he said. “He’s the only colt around who can stride with Big Brown.”↵↵And so it’s on. Desmoreaux will ride Big Brown on Saturday while Edgar Prado will pilot Casino Drive. There’s been some trash-talking between the trainers for the two horses, with Big Brown’s trainer Rick Dutrow saying that his horse’s victory in the Belmont is a foregone conclusion while going on to scoff at Casino Drive’s unorthodox training schedule, one that has produced some laughably slow times on the track this week. In short, all the elements are in place for a transnational smackdown, and if you’re the true American horse-racing fan that you say you are, well, your mission is clear.↵

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