Actually it is Secretariat who might not be in Big Brown's league. It's still too early to tell, but Secretariat faced some competition. Unfortunately we might only get three or at most four more races out of Big Brown. I would guess Belmont, Travers, maybe the Jockey Club, and then the BC Classic. Today it looked like Big Brown was running against humans.
ML/NJ
“Actually it is Secretariat who might not be in Big Brown’s league.”
That is really quite absurd.
Based on the racing times Big Brown would have lost the Derby and Preakness to Sham, the gifted horse that helped drive Secretariat to greatness. In any other year but 1973, Sham would have been the Derby and Preakness winners, and horse of the year, instead of a little noted footnote to the greatest throroughred horse of all ( Man O’ War partisans do have some good arguments of course ). Sham’s Derby time was no worse than the fourth best ever, and most say second only to Secretariat’s.
Big Brown is a very good horse in a very weak year for throroughbred horses. He hasn’t yet shown that he is in the same class as either Sham or Secretariat. All he needs to do is win the Belmont in 2:23.99 and break Secretariat’s 35 year old stakes, track, and world record. If Big Brown could do that, I’d then agree that he is one of the all-time greats. But let’s be realistic, if he can just win in 2:25.99 or less, and become the second horse to run the Belmont in less then 2:26, he will establish himself as one of the better triple crown winners. First he’s got to do it, and based on his Derby and Preakness times I doubt that it will happen.