Girls Rule

Richard Dutrow, Jr., trainer of Triple Crown hopeful Big Brown, responded with the following recently to a question regarding reigning Horse of the Year Curlin...."Well, I've seen Curlin get beat by a filly, so that is not impressive to me. I can't imagine there's a filly breathing air that could beat Big Brown." So basically, Richie stuck his fat little thumbs in his ears, wiggled his fingers and said 'nyah-nyah, Curlin got beat by a girl, nyah-nyah'.

That race was last year's Belmont Stakes. The filly was Rags to Riches, sister to both Jazil and Casino Drive (siblings in that they share the same dam, not to be confused with full siblings). The former won the 2006 edition of the Belmont Stakes while the later will attempt to make it three in a row by foals out of Better Than Honour. While Big Brown might just run away with it convincingly, I can imagine the connections of Rags to Riches whistling a little 'nyah-nyah' of their own should her little brother make a winning run to the wire in the 2008 edition of the Belmont Stakes.

By the way, during the running of the 2003 IA Stallion Stakes the announcer shouted triumphantly that 'Girls rule the day!' as this colt's dam entered the stretch with a commanding lead as she defeated a field of colts. No one said anything about being beat by a girl, in fact they were rather gracious to the connections of Perfect Moment, the best horse in the race.