BIG BROWN

Notes of Concern…

Jack Blair

BIG BROWN

Been to the track lately?

If you have you know there is no such thing as a SURE BET!

In the run-up to the Belmont Stakes, the last leg of the three legged stool called The Triple Crown, very few folks were putting money down on the horses scheduled to run the race.

Big Brown, the winner of The Kentucky Derby and The Preakness, was simply, obviously, clearly, and indisputably going to win. He wasn’t just going to win; it would be a real rout.

If you check the newspapers, the columnists, the track sheets, or even your local bookie, you will find that everyone thought this was a done deal! The only other horse that seems to have had a chance to come in second, by many lengths behind Big Brown of course, dropped out on the day before the race. That clinched the deal!

If you were watching television prior to the beginning of the race, you might not know anyone else was running. They talked to the owner, the trainer, even the lovely lady who exercised the big fellow.

There was even a special segment on how happy a little boy would be when Big Brown won because he was there to see the event, in which his father (the jockey) was a major player. Since the lad was losing his eyesight, this was going to be one thing he would see and remember forever.

I noticed the BIG BROWN logo on the back of the jockey’s shirt, on his arm, and on the seat of his pants. Then I started noticing they had slapped that BIG BROWN company logo on anything that wasn’t standing still. Contemplating the millions of advertising dollars that had been spent on BIG BROWN the horse by BIG BROWN the mail delivery guys, I realized even they had decided this was a win-win proposition.

And then BIG BROWN lost. He not only lost, he came in LAST.

The winner was the long shot horse, paying something like 38 to 1 !

You could hear the doors of the executive suite at Big Brown headquarters slamming shut within minutes of the end of the race and you could only imagine which brilliant ad exec would have to fall on his sword for this major embarrassment.

When your kids are studying marketing in college, you will be able to tell them about BIG BROWN. I expect it will be in their text books, right after the chapter on the Edsel.