Big Brown Heavily Favored in Haskell
Written by Ted Stuknotski   
Friday, 01 August 2008

Big Brown makes his return on Sunday in the $1 Million dollar Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park. Big Brown is the 1-2 morning line Haskell betting favorite in the seven horse field.

He will break from post position in the Haskell Invitational 4 and will have his usual jockey Kent Desormeaux on board. It will be the first start for Big Brown since his very disappointing effort in the Belmont Stakes when he finished last trying to win the Triple Crown.

With the Haskell betting field being small, Big Brown is not expected to have much difficulty. "We're not supposed to get beat by the post position," said co-owner Michael Iavarone.

"In this situation, Kent is likely to put the horse right up on the pace. Whether you draw the rail or the 7, it would be the same basic trip."

Magical Forest will be on the rail with jockey Jorge Chavez aboard for the Haskell Invitational. Cool Coal Man is the second horse betting choice at 4-1 and will break from the #2 post.

"I think it's good," said trainer Nick Zito. "I like being inside there and hopefully we'll save some ground. He ran well over the track last time. He's a very nice horse starting to come into his own."

Zito also has Coal Play in the race. He has Joe Bravo in the irons and goes from post position #6. The two horses will not be coupled in the horse betting for Sunday’s race.

Alaazo starts from post position #3. Nistle's Crunch starts from post position #5. Atoned gets the outside post position #7. Atoned is trained by Todd Pletcher who has won the last two Haskell Invitational’s with Bluegrass Cat in 2006 and Any Given Saturday last year. ESPN Classic and ESPN News will be televising Sunday’s Haskell Invitational race.

 

2008 Belmont Stakes

Da' Tara Wins the 140th Belmont Stakes

A crowd of 94,476 was shocked to see Big Brown lose the Belmont as most thought they would see Triple Crown history being made. Instead, the big winner of the 140th Belmont Stakes was 38-1 longshot Da' Tara, who led start to finish and won by 5 1/4 lengths.