Simply using Beyers as a measure, Big Brown is not only not great he is on the low side of fair when compared to true good horses of recent past. He is the most accomplished three year old but in this weak crop where no one else has grabbed the reins to even be clearly second best there is just not much to be excited about. He is like Todd Hollandsworth as the NL rookie of the year in 1996, nice season and best of a limited crop but far from a real bright light. The weakness of the older horses also plays a factor here in that seemingly Curlin is the only real top older horse. If a few of the top horses from last year had stayed in training and progressed as 4 year olds there would be 4 or 5 horses that would be superior to BB as opposed to just Curlin.
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