The Gods have finally spoken...

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

What Big Brown had was much worse than what Touch Gold had. Touch Gold did not have a quarter crack. Touch Gold had grabbed a quarter in his previous race but it wasn't a true quarter crack. I know that because my trainer was asking David Hofmans about it just a couple of days ago. Hofmans said that what Big Brown had was 100x worse.

What's also ironic about the Touch Gold comparison is that despite the Belmont win, later in the '97 season,Touch Gold tailed off badly (just as Big Brown did today), getting beat the length of the stretch at odds-on in the Pegasus (in a 4-horse field) and then virtually easing in the BC Classic behind Skip Away. I don't recall exactly, but I believe the excuse was the development of a quarter crack, possibly a result of the trauma sustained in the Preakness followed by continued training/racing during the summer.