Big Brown's Date Book Could Fill Fast

Many Hoping for Matchup With Curlin After Belmont

ELMONT, N.Y., June 5 -- IEAH Stables co-president Mike Iavarone insists Big Brown will run again after Saturday, whether or not he takes the Belmont Stakes and becomes the first winner of horse racing's Triple Crown in 30 years.

The undefeated colt's date book has two future engagements penciled in: the $1 million Travers Stakes for 3-year-olds on Aug. 23 at Saratoga and the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic two months later at Santa Anita Park in California. Other tracks also are joining in, with promises of huge purses should Big Brown make an appearance.

Suffolk Downs in Boston announced yesterday it would raise the purse of the Massachusetts Handicap on Sept. 20 from $500,000 to $5 million if Big Brown would race in it against the 4-year-old Curlin, widely acknowledged as the best racehorse in the world.

New York Racing Association President Charles Hayward said he would gladly supplement the purse of the prestigious $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup this fall for a Big Brown-Curlin matchup.

Curlin has begun to loom large in every conversation about Big Brown's racing future, as people want to see the best against the best.

"It's huge," Iavarone said. "Mainstream media will pick up thoroughbred racing for at least a short period of time in a positive light. We need the momentum, and it's the only way we continue on with the momentum through the end of the year. If we don't create excitement, it's going to fade by the wayside."

After finishing third in the Kentucky Derby, winning the Preakness and suffering a stunning loss to filly Rags to Riches in the Belmont last year, Curlin rose to another level. He easily won the Breeders' Cup Classic on his way to 2007 horse of the year honors and came back in March to crush an international cast of stars in the $6 million Dubai World Cup, the world's richest race.

Majority owner Jess Jackson, founder of the Kendall-Jackson wineries, kept Curlin in training because he considered it important for the sport to have its best horses race beyond their 3-year-old seasons despite the overwhelming financial incentive to send them to the breeding shed as soon as possible.

If Big Brown can win the Triple Crown and Curlin takes the $1 million Stephen Foster Handicap on June 14 at Churchill Downs, the table would be set for a confrontation that could rival Seabiscuit vs. War Admiral.

The most logical place for Big Brown and Curlin to meet would be the Breeders' Cup Classic, which is supposed to be the definitive American championship race. This year, however, the Classic will be held at Santa Anita Park, marking the first time it has been contested on an artificial Polytrack surface.

Curlin's trainer, Steve Asmussen, appears to have no interest in that kind of experiment, and has gone so far as to nominate his horse to the $6.2 million Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, the most prestigious turf race in Europe, held Oct. 5 in France.

"The idea of Big Brown and Curlin is to find out for the competitive sense of it," Asmussen said. "Both of their forms have been established on dirt. If you ran it on something else, wouldn't it open it up for excuses? Why put them together when it wouldn't be answered" definitively?