Big Brown Stain... ...Yeah, Let's Go With That

I ran across an article at Deadspin, excellently written, that I'd like to pass along today. The article is from June 7, written by Ryan Goldberg, and concerns horse racing, specifically the 2008 Triple Crown season. The three things you might know going in from that year are that A) Big Brown won the Kentucky Derby, B) the filly Eight Belles broke her leg and had to be put down, and C) still no Triple Crown win which is pretty much the only thing the general public cares about anymore regarding horse racing.

Part of horse racing's image problem revolves around general corruption, and Goldberg's piece is not going to help matters. It tells the story of an investment scheme that promised to pay investors from the horse's winnings, a poor investment strategy given how uncertain a revenue stream that is. It tells the story of a horse frequently given steroids. It tells the story of an owner, Rick Dutrow, who treated the rules as things that didn't apply to him and even if they did, didn't matter enough to worry about. Everything collapsed during the Triple Crown, and Big Brown not only failed to convert at the Belmont, he came in stone dead last and DNF'ed.

To the horse racing community's utter delight.