Big Brown made himself right at home after his arrival at Belmont Park, munching some hay while waiting for his red, rubber ball to be hung outside of his stall.
Always curious, he stuck his neck out as far as he could to his right to touch noses with a chestnut filly named Moonlight Alice.
"He’s already trying to make friends, but he wants her to know she has to win at least one Grade 1 if she is going to have any shot with him," said Mike Iavarone, co-president of IEAH Stables.
"Seriously, the thing about him that stands out to me the most is his class," Iavarone continued. "He is the most intelligent horse I have ever seen. He loves people, love all this attention and he loves to run."
Big Brown, a son of Boundary, will be making only his sixth career start in the 11/2-mile Belmont Stakes (G1) where a win would equal the record of Seattle Slew as the only horse to win the Triple Crown while undefeated. Seattle Slew was 9-0 after he won the Belmont.
"I’m confident in this horse because of the way he’s run his races and the level of competition he’s faced," trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. said. "He has become so much better than any of them. And, he has trained and raced in cool weather, so he is still a pretty fresh horse. I really don’t expect to do much more than to give him one maintenance breeze and go on to the Belmont Stakes.
"This horse has an aura about him, and people who will come out to watch him race will be in for a thrill."
Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr., jesting about fighting a cough a few days after the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1):
"I'm doing all right; it's just all that dirt that Big Brown kicked up in my lungs."