Mike Brunker Horse racing editor • Profile • E-mail

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Big Brown’s crushing victory in the Kentucky Derby proved he is a superstar, but is he the Triple Crown winner that horse racing fans have awaited for nearly 30 years?

He seems likely to be a worthy successor to Affirmed, but there still are pitfalls that could trip him up as he attempts to become racing’s 12th Triple Crown winner.

But before looking ahead, what did we learn from Big Brown’s 4¾-length Derby victory?

He is indeed the “freak” that his connections and believers said he was.

The explosive move he showed in Louisville to rush to the lead turning for home erased any doubts that his impressive victory in the Florida Derby a month earlier might have been a fluke. Remember that he made that move Saturday after breaking from the disadvantageous post position 20 and losing ground around both turns.

His trainer, Rick Dutrow Jr. put it succinctly after watching Big Brown laugh at history — becoming the first horse since 1915 to win the Derby off just three lifetime starts — and his 19 rivals.

“It was all good.  Brown showed up,” he said.

With Big Brown’s dominating performance, the question now is who will show up in the Preakness Stakes in two weeks?

Sadly, the filly Eight Belles will not. The 3-year-old Larry Jones-trained filly, runner-up in the Derby, broke both her front ankles about a quarter mile past the Derby finish line and had to be euthanized on the track.

And David Carroll, trainer of third-place finisher Denis of Cork, didn’t sound like he was eager to try to make up the 8¼ lengths that separated his colt from Big Brown. “Right now I’d say the inclination is to skip the Preakness, go for the Belmont,” he said. “But we’ll watch the horse for a few days and make a decision.”

It was not immediately clear whether the connections of any other Derby runners were itching for a rematch. That situation will clarify itself in the next couple days, but I’d be surprised if more than one or two continue on to Round Two.

The most likely newcomers are horses that dropped out of the Derby picture late or didn’t have sufficient graded stakes earnings to make the Derby, including Behindatthebar, El Gato Malo, Halo Najib, Massive Drama and Tomcito. Another possibility would be Icabad Crane, winner of the Federico Tesio Stakes at Pimlico Race Course, home of the Preakness.

But don’t be surprised of some of those horses end up racing elsewhere.

And even if they show up, none of those horses is likely to worry the Big Brown camp, unless the horse doesn’t bounce back well from his Derby exertions.

Dutrow said as much in his post-race interview. “His next race is out of my hands because I’m not going to be able to train him,” he said. “… I’m not going to feel as confident.”

Even if Big Brown ends up facing a small number of seemingly overmatched rivals in Baltimore, there are still potential hurdles.

For starters, the colt’s connections went to great lengths to keep their horse in the clear in the Derby by picking the unpopular 20 post. They will have no such luxury in the Preakness, where posts are decided by the old-fashioned pill pull.

That would be important only if the Derby winner didn’t break alertly and found himself behind horses for the first time in his brief career. Remember, we still don’t know how he’ll react the first time he gets dirt kicked in his face.

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The bigger concern, though, is Big Brown’s feet. They didn’t seem to be bothering him in the Derby, but hoof problems of the kind that delayed his 2008 debut until March, tend to be chronic. If they act up before or after the Preakness, the son of Boundary might not even get a chance to run for the elusive Triple Crown on June 7 at Belmont Park.

If Big Brown stays healthy, and takes care of business in the Preakness, the Belmont will likely present a sterner test. They don’t call it the “Test of a Champion” for nothing.

The 1½ mile distance is itself an unknown, as any number of Derby winners have gotten rubber-legged in the late stages of that anachronistic marathon.

He’ll likely face one or two Derby horses who sat out the Derby, such as Denis of Cork, as well as one or two late-developing 3-year-olds. History says those freshened Derby foes, in particular, can lay an effective ambush.

Despite such potential pitfalls — and others — the feeling here is that Big Brown has a very good chance of completing the three-race sweep.

Jockey Kent Desormeaux did a good job after the Derby of describing the two things that make him a very special horse.

“He’s got the talent, he’s got the brains,” he said.

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