Big Brown Wins Kentucky Derby

In spite of the disadvantage of starting from the far outside 20th post, UPS-sponsored Big Brown won the Kentucky Derby yesterday by five lengths, becoming the first to win from that post since Clyde Van Dusen in 1929. Second-place finisher Eight Belles broke both front-leg ankles, going down on the track minutes after the race as the horses galloped around the final turn. After being examined, she was euthanized where she lay. Dr. Larry Bramlage, the Derby's on-call veterinarian, explained that she didn’t have a front leg to stand on so that she could be put into the equine ambulance.

With the first win in the Triple Crown behind him, there are those in racing circles who say that Big Brown is such a convincingly superior racer that chances are good for him to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. The next leg of the Triple Crown is the Preakness Stakes, two weeks from now.

Of Saturday’s win, Big Brown’s jockey Kent Desormeaux said, "He broke listening to the crowd. He was attentive to the cheers." Desormeaux has ridden to two previous Kentucky Derby wins.