JC / Railbird - Big Brown Preps

Big Brown Preps

Big Brown breezed five furlongs in 1:00.03, and galloped out six furlongs in 1:14.40, shortly after the renovation break at Belmont this morning. A crowd of onlookers observed the move, which was done without a patch on Big Brown’s cracked front hoof (final repairs are planned for Friday) and elicited predictable praise from trainer Rick Dutrow — “We’re very happy with things right now” (Blood-Horse). Questions and concerns burble elsewhere, adding intrigue to Saturday’s foregone conclusion. NYRA expects to draw a field of nine on Wednesday for the Belmont Stakes, but don’t look for an afternoon post position draw show with Jerry Bailey, connection interviews, or swooshy graphics on ESPN2. In keeping with NYRA’s oddly low-key approach to promoting a possibly historic race, the draw is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. and will appear on ESPNEWS sans hoopla.

Posted by JC in Triple Crown on 06/03/2008 @ 1:40 pm / Follow @railbird on Twitter

2 Comments

I couldn’t disagree more with Daily News’ take on low key approach NYRA is taking.
Why, exactly, does Belmont need to open on Monday & Tuesday? Create momentum? So 150k can show up instead of 140k? More statebred turf sprints that have nothing to do with anything going on Saturday?
A post position draw for a 9 horse field? The Derby draw is understandable, but the draw for the Belmont is an afterthought and should be treated like one.
I’ve long given up on the alergic nature of this industry to ‘dealing with’, instead of ignoring, the sweet fruit that could be harvested on these here interwebs, so I’m not surprised that the NYRA or the NTRA can’t even point a freakin’ domain name in the right direction.
Billboards and signs entering the track? Belmont is beautiful on its own. I’ve gone there on a Thursday afternoon, when it’s completely empty; you’d need to be completely unconcious to not be thinking about the history of the place.
Low-key suits just fine for this race and this facility ONLY.
Dressing up the track and creating a festival or whatever is for other places, like my home track MTH…you’d hardly recognize the place now if the BC was your only visit last year.
This is NY, this is how we roll.

Posted by o_crunk on June 3, 2008 @ 3:14 pm

With you on Monday and Tuesday — running cards or opening the track those days would do little to create momentum. I do wish all three TC races would get a half-hour show (the hour for the Derby and Preakness is too long, the ESPNEWS blip for the Belmont too short). And the web situation is dreadful — it’s unbelievable NYRA or the NTRA doesn’t own belmontstakes.com (and that Magna or the NTRA doesn’t own preaknessstakes.com) and that there’s no Triple Crown site with even half the depth of information Churchill manages to post for the Kentucky Derby. As for billboards and banners — they’re useful for building buzz. Boston is a much smaller city, so I know the comparison isn’t perfect, but when Suffolk Downs was promoting the return of the MassCap, they did a terrific job building interest by putting up banners in the North End, running spots on the local NPR station, targeting ads, etc. NYRA doesn’t have to go all out, but there’s a lot more they could be doing …

Posted by Jessica on June 3, 2008 @ 6:40 pm

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