Big Brown Wins Monmouth Stakes

Big Brown showed that he is a tough horse after all. He was challenged down the stretch in Saturday’s Monmouth Stakes but gamely held on to win the half million dollar race.

Big Brown was able to hold off three talented horses and prove that he should be in the Horse of the Year race.

Big Brown led almost all the way under jockey Kent Desormeaux. He was able to hold off Proudinsky in the stretch to get the win. A crowd of 17,047 was on hand at Monmouth Park to watch Big Brown.

Normally on a September Saturday at Monmouth there might have been 6,000 fans but Big Brown drew a lot more horse betting interest.

The horse was able to stubbornly hold off Proudinsky and Shakis to win the race. "I thought he put on a huge effort, man," said trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. said. "Those horses looked like they had him turning for home, and he just wouldn't let them get by. It's something we haven't seen with him before."

The Monmouth was being used as a horse betting prep race for Big Brown. He is now set to run in the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Oct. 25th.

"In my mind, it sets him up very good," Dutrow said. "He looks like he put out a gut-wrenching performance, but we've got the 40 days, and that's what you need for them to get over a race and train up to the next one."

Big Brown led almost from the start in Monmouth Stakes horse betting. Desormeaux urged him on and he did the opening quarter in 23.46 seconds. He went the half mile in 46.83 seconds and three-quarters in 1:11.21. In the stretch he had to fight a strong bid from Proudinsky but he never led the horse get by him.

"I think he showed you what kind of heart he's got," Desormeaux said. "This horse [Proudinsky] wasn't going to get by him. Big Brown can just jump into a new gear." He covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:47.41 and returned $3.20 for horse betting gamblers. "To hold off a horse that Bobby Frankel said had not been coming up to a race any better and that's run the quality of races that he's run underlines what we're talking about here," said owner Michael Iavarone of IEAH Stable. "They could have run around again and it would have been the same result."