Big Brown 1 1/2 mile run from immortality

If Big Brown holds form today by winning The Belmont Stakes, thus ending a Triple Crown drought that has persisted for three decades, some will brand him as one of the weaker, if not the weakest, of such champions in the history of the sport.

You probably know the script of the cynics by now.

The runaway winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness has gone undefeated in just five career starts, which hardly qualifies as a measuring stick for greatness. Big Brown barely has broken a sweat while running off a bunch of nags representing a weak, 3-year-old class. He hasn’t threatened track records as he’s positioned himself to do what no thoroughbred has done since Affirmed thrilled the racing world in 1978.

Excuse me?

By that logic, the 2000 Ravens won a Super Bowl but really weren’t all that, since their otherworldly defense beat up a mediocre NFL and masked the team’s one-dimensional offense and glaring weakness at quarterback. The 2005 Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse team won the NCAA Division I title by going 16-0, but the Blue Jays won too many one-goal games and weren’t dominant enough.

American pop culture fascinates, entertains and irritates me. We’re always searching for the Next Big Thing. When it arrives, we can’t diminish it fast enough. We like excellence, but we often harbor a deeper need to reduce it to the ordinary.

Like many people, I’m rooting for Big Brown to win and win big in the Test of Champions. I’d love to see this freakish colt with the powerful glide demolish his nine competitors and take aim at Secretariat’s world record of 2:24 over the punishing, mile-and-a-half distance. I’d love to see him make history, partly because the ailing racing industry could use a shot of life, partly because Big Brown is surrounded by some compelling, less-than-savory characters who have added unusual color to the Belmont build-up, but mostly because it’s past time for a special animal to get it done.

It’s easy to root against Big Brown’s trainer Rick Dutrow, Jr. He’s been suspended for doping his horses illegally, and he talks smack like Namath and Ali, calling Big Brown’s victory today a “foregone conclusion.” It’s easy to root against International Equine Acquisitions and Holdings, the ownership group run by a former Wall Street investment banker who was censured and suspended by regulators years ago.

When I watch Big Brown run, it’s easy to separate the flawed humans from the regal animal, and simply enjoy the horse when he hits that gear, no whip required.

So what if Big Brown has crushed an inferior, 3-year-old crop to this point? That’s what a great horse should do. Before Affirmed edged Alydar three times by tiny margins to win the greatest Triple Crown duel ever 30 years ago, the previous 10 champions dominated their class.

The big downer regarding Big Brown is more about how the racing game has changed for the worse. Commercial breeding operations have long since taken over the sport, and the best racehorses are coveted not on the track but in the breeding shed. Great rivalries have all but disappeared, since exceptional thoroughbreds are retired often as 3-year-olds and sent to the stud barn, where they reap tens of millions for investors paying dearly for those services.

This is where the Big Brown saga loses its punch. Even if he cleans up at Belmont, even if he overcomes such obstacles as his slightly cracked left foot and a formidable challenger in Casino Drive, Big Brown might race two more times in the Travers Stakes and Breeders Cup. He might get to test himself once against the great 4-year-old, Curlin, before heading to the barn for good.

Should he win the Triple Crown, it wouldn’t shock me if Big Brown retired after only six races. Consider that Affirmed and Alydar raced against each other more often.

And consider this about Big Brown. Should he win today, he will have disposed of a record, combined 39 Triple Crown opponents. Should he prove to be the best in the grueling test that has doomed 10 Triple Crown hopefuls since Affirmed grabbed our attention, Big Brown will be remembered as greatness that flashed before our eyes too quickly, but greatness nevertheless.

Gary Lambrecht writes about the NFL, Major League Baseball and college sports. He can be reached at glambrecht@baltimoreexaminer.com