Back in the day, and yes I know I am primed to show my age, the two dominant teams in the NFL were the Steelers and Big D. Sure, there were some solid Oakland Raider and Minnesota Viking teams, but they were only supporting characters to the top two. In my formative football watching years from the mid 70’s into the early 80’s, if you wanted to contend for the Super Bowl, you had to do it through Pittsburgh or Big D. Flash Forward more than 30 years, and the more things change, the more they stay the same. The Pittsburgh Steelers survived first half mistakes to win a wild one today against their hated rival the Baltimore Ravens. In the process, the famed franchise moved to within two games of adding to their league-best total of six wins in the Big Game. Meanwhile in South Florida, it was not the Cowboys representing the nickname Big D with championship form, but rather it was the other Big D stealing the attention on a big day of NFL playoffs.
Big Drama is the defending champion, or at least he will be in a matter of 48 hours. When you are the defending champion, you tend to have a huge target on your back. Ask any defending Super Bowl champ and they will tell you how hard it is win week in and week out, with the other teams geared to play their very best against last year’s king. Now mind you, I have little reason to believe that other horses are aware when they are facing a champion, but their connections sure do, and I am pretty sure that Big Drama knows he is the man of the sprint division. So it was today as the first big test of the year, after a championship season, presented itself for America’s best sprinter.
Winning for the 10th time in 17 starts, Big Drama faced a formidable challenge from the classy Custom for Carlos, before dispatching that foe in mid stretch. On the wire, the five-year-old son of Montbrook had pulled a full four lengths clear from his first strong challenger of 2011. If the way he drew off late was impressive, a glance at the final time on the toteboard revealed even more. In his first start since an impressive win in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint ten weeks ago, Big Drama covered the six furlongs of the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector Stakes in 1:08.12. That’s a new track record at Gulfstream Park. By way of comparison, top older sprinting mares Tar Heel Mom and Hilda’s Passion needed 1:09.75 to complete the same distance two races later. As if to say his pending Eclipse Award is well deserved, Big Drama may have run every bit as well as he did in the BC.
Today, Big Drama sprinted and romped his way to collect his Eclipse Award on Monday night. He also threw down the gauntlet … anyone who wants to take home the 2011 Sprint Championship is going to need to go through Big D to get it, and judging from his performance today, it will not be easy.
Photo courtesy of Reed Palmer Photography