[jaripeo]

Big Brown=Nice, Zarkava=Scary


Big Brown proved he can handle some fine turf horses over the weekend, and I give the horse a lot of credit for his impressive win. I still give his connections nothing but demerits, of course, for only giving him one more race, but, to paraphrase Princess Leia, if money is what they love, then that's what they'll receive.

Of course, Big Brown (still) has never faced anything like the sort of competition that could be on offer in a little over a month; if Duke of Marmalade's test run over polytrack at Great Leighs works out well, he may well be Classic-bound; I imagine there are quite a few European trainers who would rather face Big Brown than Zarkava (pictured) in the Arc -- especially after this weekend.

Zarkava proved that the mile and a half Arc distance will be no difficulty -- even though she missed the break completely (which is replayed a number of times at the end of the video), stumbled and trailed the field for much of Prix Vermeille this past weekend, yet she still had no trouble equaling the record for the race. If you were looking for the best equine performance of the weekend (or possibly the year), this is it.

Posted by Superfecta at 10:42 AM