You’ve never truly seen a horse race until you’ve seen one from the rail, where the horses are close enough to touch, and the sheer power of the stampede quakes the ground and sends a tremor through your heart. I’ve been to several live horse races, and one of the most memorable stretch runs comes from Proud Spell’s bid for the lead in the 2008 Kentucky Oaks. It had rained all day long, and several races before, the storm had opened up and unleashed a downpour that made the horses hard to see. By Oaks time, the track at Churchill was a slop book-ended in rivers.

This Saturday, the Burial Ground of Champions is welcoming the most talented dirt horse in America. That’s right — Curlin is going to race at Saratoga. The four-year-old chestnut is slated to run in the Grade I $500,000 Woodward Stakes. If he wins the race, Curlin will raise his earnings to $9,796,800, surpassing Skip Away’s record, and have only the mighty Cigar standing in his way of becoming the richest American Thoroughbred in racing history.

No offense to Pyro, but I was pretty surprised when he was named the 7–2 morning-line favorite of the $1 million Travers Stakes set for this Saturday. Maybe the bettors are feeling the field is pretty wide open, as the race is yet another virtual “best of” the Triple Crown contenders, with some exceptions. Come post time, I have serious doubts the winner of the Louisiana Derby will still be the odds-on favorite. Among Pyro, Colonel John, Tale of Ekati, Cool Coal Man, Da’ Tara, Macho Again, Court Vision, and Tres Borrachos, I think the horse to beat is an outsider—one Harlem Rocker.

Big Brown won the Haskell. So why am I not thrilled? In fact, why was I just about sick to my stomach after the race was over? On the bright side of things, we witnessed a new side to the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner last Saturday. Never before had the champ been on his belly and been forced to dig deep to pull off a victory. There was no overpowering romp in this race. And while asking for Big Brown to once again blow away his competition might be asking too much of him, the Haskell raises even more questions than when the champ was first entered in the race.

It’s been a pretty obvious grumble since the Triple Crown, but I’m more convinced now than ever that the connections of Big Brown don’t deserve him. Anyone who has been following this horse knows about his corporate ownership by International Equine Acquisitions Holdings, Inc. (IEAH), his big mouth trainer with a bigger ego, and finally, his scatterbrained jockey who embarrassed him in the Belmont. If there’s one single person in Big Brown’s camp that we can cling to, that person is Big Brown’s closest human friend, his exercise rider and assistant trainer Michelle Nevin.

The field for the Grade II Jim Dandy Stakes this Sunday is shaping up to be a sampling of the best-of Triple Crown hopefuls and never-wases. Pyro, fresh from his comeback in the Northern Dancer Stakes at Churchill Downs, has proven his authority over Recapturetheglory and Visionaire after his Derby flop, and now is set to prove himself against former Triple Crown runners Da’ Tara, Tale of Ekati, Anak Nakal, and Macho Again. New rivals Tiz Now Tiz Then and Tizbig are also up to challenge. In this second half of the year, the big stakes races are starting to pop up again in preparation for the most prestigious race in America, the Breeder’s Cup Classic. But Pyro is on a road all his own.

The thing about the plan was, Asmussen said Curlin had to “look much the best” in his effort in the Man o’ War Stakes on July 12th. As he finished a well-beaten second, calling Curlin “much the best” wouldn’t be accurate, though he was anything but shabby for his first start on turf. So, the question is, what now? Should the turf campaign continue for the 2007 Horse of the Year, or should the champ go back to the well-trod dirt? Before we jump to make the decision for majority owner Jess Jackson, let’s weigh the facts.

A Champion Born, a King is put to the Test

Last Saturday, Zenyatta, the big four year-old filly, went to her sixth career start looking a little sweatier than usual. And even under circumstances that showed the girl was having an off day, the “Amazon” managed to hold off rival Tough Tiz’s Sis, winning the Grade 1 Vanity Handicap by half a length. For Zenyatta, an “off day” means winning by a half length instead of 4 and a half. Until the Vanity, no horse has come to challenge Zenyatta in the stretch, at closest trailing her by a 1 ¾ lengths — and that horse happened to be Bob Baffert trainee, Tough Tiz’s Sis. Openly admitting he had been trying to avoid a match-up with his filly against Zenyatta again, Baffert had hoped the daughter of Tiznow would be able to keep her two-race winning streak rolling. It was not to be, as the reigning Queen of California proved to be the best even when she didn’t feel like it.

If some people have all the luck, then somebody’s gotta get what’s left.

For over two and a half decades, Larry Jones’ horses have passed spotlessly on drug tests. The trainer says he hasn’t used steroids since 1997. After his Kentucky Derby filly, Eight Belles, broke both front ankles while galloping out after the race, the trainer was immediately put underneath the magnifying glass. To quell the radical accusations that he’d “made” the filly large by pumping her full of steroids, Jones had the veterinarian perform an unnecessary autopsy on her to prove he had nothing to hide. As expected, the tests resolved the trainer’s innocence. But that’s hardly the end of the story.

Winner of the Breeder’s Cup Classic, the Preakness Stakes, the Dubai World Cup and named the 2007 Horse of the Year, Curlin was a horse I had followed since before the 2007 Kentucky Derby. He dazzled in his first three races of his career, winning by a combined margin of 27.5 lengths. I never root against a Kentucky Derby winner as a rule, but after Curlin didn’t win the Derby, I couldn’t stand to see him beaten again, and he got his revenge from Street Sense by a nose in the Preakness. And even in the Belmont, with the most talented filly I may ever see, a little part of me still edged in Curlin’s favor, where he was out-nosed by Rags to Riches to the wire.

Churchill Downs — May 3, 2008 — Kentucky Derby: I was standing level with the track, leaning my arms against a fence inches from the rail. The sun was baking my shoulders, giving me a sunburn to remember far after my fancy dress would be peeled from my sweat-lathered body. We were still several races away from the main event, and I had already become tired. Enduring the Kentucky Derby is a badge of honor. I was wearing high-heels, something completely foreign to my bony feet, and I had earned a slight hitch in my gait from the demands of the long day. I was at the point where I decided I would become a lazy photographer and stay in one place for a while, in my cozy front-row seat.

Millions of TV viewers and a live crowd of 94,476 people turned their eyes to the Belmont Stakes to witness history on June 7, 2008. What they got was certainly history, though not in the form anyone expected; for what occurred in Elmont, New York on that day was one of the biggest upsets in American horse racing.

And so here we are on Belmont Eve.

Nerves can get to you come Belmont. For me, the race is the poised hatchet ready to fall over my Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner. At a mile and a half, it’s the longest race in the Triple Crown, and may be the longest race any of these horses will ever run again. By the time the first Saturday in June rolls around, we must measure up what our hopeful has accomplished and weigh his probable pitfalls. For Big Brown, it looks as if the only thing that could foul him up would be bad luck in the race, a misjudgment by his jockey, or, God forbid, an injury. Even facing refreshed competitors and an up-and-coming foe, failure doesn’t seem to be in Mr. Big’s immediate future. But if horse racing has taught me one thing, it’s that anything can and will happen on the precipice of history.

Bill Nack was a senior writer for Sports Illustrated for 23 years. Before that, he wrote for New York Newsday for eleven years. He is the winner of seven Eclipse Awards for turf writing, horse racing’s Academy Awards; he also received the A.J. Liebling Award for excellence in boxing coverage. Nack is currently a freelancer for ESPN, S.I., GQ, and Time Magazine. He has served as an editor, a historian, and a consultant for motion pictures. Nack is the author of three books: Secretariat: The Making of a Champion, My Turf, and Ruffian: A Racetrack Romance.

And he is an all-around nice guy.

I hope you’re not sick of hearing about Big Brown. Because with the way Mr. Big keeps running his races, the chatter isn’t going to stop about him for a long time.

The Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, was called “one of the most easily won races you’ll see in a Triple Crown race.” The Preakness yet again proved the talent of the big bay colt. Coming from seventh position, Big Brown started out along the rail and resisted early pressure to run early, seeming happy to let Gayego and Riley Tucker wear themselves out. As it appeared the Kentucky Derby winner would be boxed in by Riley Tucker, he allowed jockey Kent Desormeaux to ease him up and drop behind them. There are not a lot of horses who can manage, or are agreeable with, being turned off and on like a rocket booster in reserve.