Big Brown will win Triple Crown, could face Curlin

I am convinced Big Brown is a great horse and that he will win the Belmont Stakes in eight days and become racing’s first Triple Crown winner in 30 years.

I picked against Big Brown in the Kentucky Derby, figuring only a superior horse could win from post 20 and a four-wide trip all the way around. Well, he did. His Preakness win came even easier.

Peter Pan winner Casino Drive is the wiseguy pick to upset Big Brown in the Belmont.

Many experts say Big Brown has yet to be challenged the way Casino Drive will challenge him.

The experts have it backward.

I doubt if Casino Drive, in his two-race career, has seen the likes of Big Brown.

Trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. keeps saying Big Brown isn’t through racing after the Belmont. I hope he’s right. The racing world craves a matchup between Big Brown and Horse of the Year Curlin.

If Big Brown continues running, the only problem is how to get the two elite horses together.

Dutrow and Steve Asmussen have stated a preference to racing over a dirt track. This year’s Breeders’ Cup is at Santa Anita, which has a synthetic surface, and both horses probably will not show up there in late October.

Belmont Park, which has a dirt track, might be much more desirable to them, and they wouldn’t have to ship 3,000 miles to run.

The New York Racing Association should negotiate with the horses’ owners to use races at Saratoga as preps, the Whitney Handicap for Curlin and the Travers for Big Brown. The NYRA could find a corporate sponsor to bolster the purse of the Jockey Club Gold Cup to $2 million, or more, and voila, Big Brown versus Curlin.

This formula worked before for the NYRA. Remember Secretariat and the first Marlboro Cup?

The Breeders’ Cup would hate this scenario. But if it’s the best way to get Big Brown and Curlin to meet, so be it.

If Breeders’ Cup officials want a rematch four weeks later at the Santa Anita, make it happen.

• CONNECTICUT — The largest parimutuel carry-over this weekend, $2.3 million, is not open to us in Las Vegas. That’s because the carry-over is for the Triple Trio wager at Happy Valley Racecourse.

Hong Kong racing has just one U.S. betting outlet, Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut. Las Vegas Dissemination Company is the U.S. distributor for the Hong Kong Jockey Club signal.

• CONTESTS — It’s good to see the local handicapping contest landscape is growing.

There will be a one-day Horseplayer World Series qualifier Thursday at the Gold Coast race book.

Also, two regular weekly contests are on Fridays at Jerry’s Nugget and Saturdays at the Las Vegas Hilton Superbook.

Richard Eng’s horse racing column is published Friday. He can be reached at rich_eng@hotmail.com.