2. Curlin finishes fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. With what looked like little competition, 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin failed to show in the Classic after tiring down the stretch on the synthetic surface.

3. Big Brown gets injured and is retired to stud. Just before a highly-anticipated meeting with Curlin in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Big Brown suffered a foot injury and was retired.

4. Zenyatta goes undefeated. Going nine for nine and seven for seven in 2008, filly Zenyatta won the Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic.

5. Industry cracks down on steroid use. 2008 saw numerous states implement new regulations against the use of steroids in race horses.

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"This was a complete fluke," Michael Iavarone, Big Brown's co-owner said. "He hadn't had issues with his feet for awhile and to have him come up just like this was a shock to all of us."

Iavarone said that because the injury would take at least two months to heal, Big Brown would be pulling out of the Breeders' Cup.

Ivarone said Big Brown, "Not only tore the bulb of the heel off, but half the foot was torn off," he said. "His front and back hooves came together. After he cooled out, he didn't want to keep walking. It's a pretty significant soft-tissue injury. We had no choice but to retire him."

Iavarone said that although Big Brown's injury isn't life-threatening, it's important to make sure infection doesn't set in while he recovers.

"I expect the next few days to be pretty rough on him," Iavarone said. "We've got to take care of him."

The end of Big Brown's career is a blow to the entire horse racing injury. The highly anticpicated matchup between Big Brown and Curlin at the upcoming October 25 Breeders' Cup Classic was a race the Nation had their eye on. The 3-year-old colt won 7 of 8 races and earned more than 3.6 million.

Iavarone said Big Brown's team would reflect on "what he's done for us, instead of feeling sorry for ourselves. For an owner, he's one in a million. The way the fans responded to him was amazing. He won the Derby and Preakness on raw ability. In his last two races, he showed his heart. He was getting to the point where he was putting both of them together, and it kills me that he got this close and not to see it happen. We did everything we could to get to the Breeders' Cup, but it didn't work out. It's just part of the game. I can walk away with a smile and know he's going to live a good life."

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Scheduled for Oct. 24 and 25, the Santa Anita race promises to be filled with everything you expect from it.

Big Brown was trailing Salute the Count by approximately six lengths, sure enough the Colt gradually made up ground and finished in front of his rival at the wire. Big Brown galloped his last quarter in 23.85 seconds and worked seven furlongs in 1:29.26. The course conditions were labeled as ‘Good’, although certain riders found the course a little soft.

Salute the Count finished the track second with a time 1:15.61.

Dutrow was content with the outcome as he watched alongside Michael Iavarone. Iavarone is the co-president of the International Equine Acquisitions Holdings Stable, which is the major owner of the thoroughbred Big Brown.

Said Dutrow: “I’m happy enough with the way things are, he’s very good, we’re very, very happy this morning. If there was a bar that had Cakebread right now we’d be going there right now and pop open a bottle.”

“I’m ready to roll, are you kidding me? This is beautiful. We got our horse going the right way,” Iavarone said.

Big Brown is set to run twice before the Breeder’s Cup at Santa Anita in California on October 25th 2008.

Kip Deville is looking for a repeat victory at the Breeders’ who worked six furlongs in 1:12.97 over the New York turf course with Cornelio Velasquez riding.

“Kip will show up,” Dutrow said. “We’re just hoping he didn’t like that grass course up there; it rained all night. Maybe by sending him up there with Frost Giant, that might not have been a good move; he got Kip upset on the van. I’m under the impression that he didn’t like grass course that day, which is no problem. He come out of it great, as you can see he’s doing good. He likes that grass course out there, so we’re very confident as long as he stays the way he is now.”

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Rumblings of trainer Rick Dutrow's plans to have Big Brown face 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin began even before Big Brown's disastrous Belmont Stakes performance in May: "I would like to see them run together, it would be good for racing and good for us; it won’t be so good for them."

And after Big Brown returned to winning form in the Haskell Invitational in August, Dutrow again claimed he had the superior horse, saying, "I don't know why people think Curlin is such a good horse. We're way better than Curlin."

The responses from Curlin's majority owner Jess Jackson have been more restrained.

"We don't have anything to prove, [Big Brown] does," Jackson said in August. "We like him, he's a great horse; it would be good for racing to have them together. We're not avoiding him, we're just doing what's right for Curlin."

But with Curlin's arrival at Santa Anita Park on Sept. 28, the debate over which horse is better has been reignited.

Three-year-old Big Brown and 4-year-old Curlin both have impressive racing resumes. Along with victories in the Monmouth Stakes and the Haskell Invitational, Big Brown is this year's Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes champion. His most notorious loss came in the third leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, when he was eased in the stretch. Curlin's 2008 campaign has thus far been sensational, with wins in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, the Woodward Stakes, the Stephen Foster Handicap and the Dubai World Cup. The only blemish on his record this year is a runner-up showing in the turf-run Man o' War Stakes.

How Curlin takes to the synthetic track will ultimately decide whether racing fans will finally get to see these two powerhouses race against each other. But it seems more likely than ever that the question of who the better horse is, Big Brown or Curlin, will finally be answered.

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In his final prep race for the Breeders' Cup, Big Brown recently returned to the turf to win the Monmouth Stakes. Two more Classic preps are running this Saturday – the Super Derby for 3-year-olds at Louisiana Downs and the Massachusetts Handicap at Suffolk Downs.

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Desormeaux was full of praise for his mount. "[Big Brown] is multi-talented. He just loves to be a race horse. He doesn't like getting beat. He showed that true grit and determination down the lane."

This is Big Brown's second victory in as many outings since his disastrous Belmont Stakes performance his previous win was in the $1M Gr. 1 Haskell Invitational also at Monmouth and trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. has high hopes for his star colt. "To win [the Monmouth Stakes] was great. Now we can go to the next race full of confidence."

That next race? The Breeders' Cup Classic, which will be run at Santa Anita Park on October 25. Will Big Brown win the 2008 Breeders' Cup? Get all your horse betting odds at the Bodog Racebook.

It was Big Brown's first action since the Haskell Invitational on Aug. 3 and and last prep race before the annual Breeder's Cup.

Coming off victories already this year at The Kentucky Derby and Preakness, Big Brown turned a fourth post start into a narrow victory over a field that included a number of older horses.

Riding the three-year-old to the win was regular rider Kent Desormeaux who covered 1 1/8 mile in 1:47.20.

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"I like plenty of time when I'm heading for a big race," Big Brown's trainer Rick Dutrow said. "I'm a freak about timing [because] I'm afraid of my horse running a huge race too close to the big race. With 40 days there's plenty of time for him to get over it and for me to train him up to his next race. The Breeders' Cup Classic is where we want to run, even if he puts on a show Saturday. Other than the Kentucky Derby, it's the biggest race in the country. He belongs in a race like that."

It's been one since since Big Brown raced on the grass, but Dutrow says Big Brown has been breezed and does better on the turf. To prepare for the Monmouth Stakes, Big Brown worked 5 furlongs in 1:05.35 Tuesday at Aqueduct.

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Owner Jess Jackson has indicated that Curlin may start in either the Gr. 1 $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup Invitational at Belmont Park or the $500,000 Goodwood Stakes at Santa Anita; both races are scheduled for Sept. 27. But will he choose the dirt track, Curlin's favored racing surface, at Belmont Park? Or will he test Curlin on the synthetic surface at Santa Anita—which, incidentally, is the same track on which the Classic will be held on Oct. 25?

Jackson's previous experiment of racing Curlin on a non-dirt surface did not turn out as he had hoped. With the ultimate goal of racing Curlin in the world's richest turf race, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in France, Jackson entered Curlin in the Man o' War Stakes in July as a prep. But after Curlin finished runner-up to Red Rocks, Jackson revised his plans and pointed Curlin to the Woodward, which the 2007 Horse of the Year won by one-and-a-quarter lengths.

Now with the Woodward under Curlin's belt, Jackson has a decision to make. In early August, Jackson had all but ruled out the Breeders' Cup Classic, saying: "We’d like to go there but that’s an untested surface and I’m very uncertain about it… He’s won the Classic before. Been there, done that." But one factor in particular might be changing Jackson's mind.

In an attempt to entice owner Michael Iavarone to enter Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes champion Big Brown into the Woodward Stakes, Jackson offered up a $50,000 charitable donation—an offer that Iavarone declined. But Big Brown is being pointed towards the Breeders' Cup Classic on Oct. 25, and the possibility of a showdown might be too tempting for Jackson to resist.

Will Big Brown and Curlin race against each other in 2008?

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