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Originally Posted by fpsoxfan
The beauty of this whole thing is how Big Brown is perceived by the general public. We can hash this out all day long because many people on here love the game, know the game, and have a great appreciation for its history.
Enter average sports fan. Since the Preakness I've been asked by many of my teaching and umpiring colleagues, friends, students, etc. what I think about Big Brown. It's interesting to see the excitement that this horse has generated among the general public. We can hash this out all we want to, just like baseball enthusiast would compare players from past to present, but it's the people who think that Silver Charm is an anniversary gift that this story is reaching out to and they are grabbing it.
So, where am I going with this? For the first time in quite a while, we have a horse, like him or not who is putting horse racing on the map. It's the first time in 21 years of following this game that I've seen this much interest from the casual fan. Let's run with it!
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I don't think this is true. I think there was much more interest in Smarty Jones just 4 years ago. They had hour long programs on cable TV...a "biography" special program on him. He had all the angles...the crushing his skull in the gate at age 2...the murder of his ex-trainer...old man Chapman. Coming from Philly Park. I don't see anything near the interest in this horse. I see nothing more than any other time we have a horse going for the triple crown...and in this case, much, much less than the previous one.