Haskell Invitational

TRACK BANDIT PREVIEWS

The highly anticipated return of BIG BROWN (Boundary) in Sunday's $1 million

Haskell Invitational (G1) at Monmouth Park figures to be a winning one for the

Richard Dutrow trainee, who turned in sterling efforts in the Florida Derby

(G1), Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness S. (G1), but was pulled up in his bid

for the Triple Crown in the June 7 Belmont S. (G1). A mind-numbing amount of

newsprint, webspace and broadcast time was used to theorize why he ultimately

failed in his attempt at history, much less run anything close to a sensible

race. We won't waste time re-hashing it all except to say, from a bettor's

perspective, the extenuating circumstances surrounding Big Brown leading up to

the Belmont were reason enough to take a stand against him at the windows.

While the connections of Big Brown obviously feel pressure that their star

colt return to his former self, there is undoubtedly much less pressure from

outside forces heading into this race. Big Brown has been able to train in the

relative quiet of Aqueduct rather than bustling Belmont for the past two months,

and has looked sharp doing so, which suggests he has recovered sufficiently from

his foot ailment. All things being equal, Big Brown is the leading member of his

crop, and with last week's Jim Dandy S. (G2) and Saturday's West Virginia Derby

(G3) attracting some of the better three-year-olds in training, the Haskell

didn't exactly come up tough.

The most accomplished rival is arguably COOL COAL MAN (Mineshaft), whose

signature win thus far was in the Fountain of Youth S. (G2) in February. Cool

Coal Man later faltered on Polytrack in the Blue Grass S. (G1) and then was only

15th in the Kentucky Derby, but rebounded with a gutsy neck score in the Spend a

Buck S. over this strip. Cool Coal Man has been out of action only one week less

than Big Brown, but fired fresh over the winter and is undefeated going the

Haskell distance of nine furlongs on dirt. If Big Brown simply doesn't have it

here, Cool Coal Man is probably the next best horse in the race.

ATONED (Repent) has made it a habit of being the bridesmaid since capturing

the Continental Mile S. here last August. Indeed, he's somehow managed to lose

five stakes by a neck or less, including the Remsen S. (G2) and Tampa Bay Derby

(G3), and really had no business coughing up a late lead in the July 12 Long

Branch S. last time. Perhaps he can shake off this bad habit at some point, and

kudos to those who will have their money on him when he does. We simply feel

it's a risky investment that won't pay off.

NISTLE'S CRUNCH (Van Nistelrooy) has placed in a pair of turf stakes

recently, but his dirt form is OK, too, despite the 19-length drubbing by Big

Brown in the Florida Derby. Perhaps a small piece is possible. MAGICAL FOREST

(Forest Camp) set a soft pace and fought back to re-take the lead from Cherokee

Artist (Cherokee Run) to score a near 16-1 upset of the Barbaro S. (G3) at

Delaware Park last time. We'll watch that rival's effort in the West Virginia

Derby and upgrade or downgrade Magical Forest's chances accordingly.

COAL PLAY (Mineshaft), an allowance-quality colt, is probably in here to

ensure a solid pace for his uncoupled stablemate Cool Coal Man. ALAAZO (A.P.

Indy) was entered and scratched from last Sunday's Jim Dandy, but this spot

honestly looks no better.