War Emblem. Funny Cide. Smarty Jones. The three most recent to make a run at this historic feat by winning the first two legs. For those who want to be superstitious, you could just stop at the fact that I will not be at the track in person this year, where my jinx filtered to the previous three from my trackside position.

That being said, there is also a different feeling this time. Out of those previous three, only Smarty Jones seemed to be anywhere near the probable winner when I made my bets. So War Emblem and Funny Cide didn’t stack up, and then there was Smarty Jones getting beat in the last few lengths by Birdstone. But this time there is a real feeling (at least from me, and I think by a lot of others) that it really would take a miracle for Big Brown not to do it, as opposed to the opposite for a couple of the aforementioned predecessors. It just doesn’t think it makes sense to bet against him.

But if that’s not enough, the opposite simplicity is just this: Big Brown is a freak. In horse racing terms, that a compliment. But watching him run is amazing…despite being only three and the same age as the other horses in these races, he simply seems to be a man among boys (that’s horse among colts if you want to go with the analogy). He seems to just lope along keeping tabs for much of the race, then when he’s asked to pick it up a bit he gives a little more juice, and just when he’s asked to break away, he kicks it into another gear and accelerates flying past the field. (If you haven’t seen the overhead view of the Preakness, my jaw hit the floor even the fourth time I saw the replay).

Of course, a lot of people have been asking me about the hoof crack that has made a lot of news the past two weeks. The questions are two-fold. First, will it impact how he runs? Second, on the heels of the tragedy at the Derby, is this a case of animal cruelty trying to grab the historic headlines?

To tackle them both in a stream-of-consciousness manner: based on his workouts and what they have done to heal the hoof, I don’t expect any issues. If he runs close to an average race for him, there is only one horse that can beat him. The injury he has is relatively minor. Plus it should be noted and remembered that Big Brown is worth tons of money alive and not should a tragic accident occur. Rumored stud deals range from $40-80 million dollars. Sure the undisclosed deal likely has an escalation clause if he is the first Triple Crown champion in three decades, but his connections know it’s not worth losing it all. As much as they would love to join him in the glory of such history, they know jeopardizing his health doesn’t make good business sense, let alone health of the horse. So people can forget about controversy on that. Of course you can never know what the horse thinks, but he just seems to love to race and toy with his competition, and this would be like an Olympic sprinter sitting out the gold-medal race because of a cracked big toenail…well, something like that. The bottom line is, the crack is extremely doubtful to affect either his performance on Saturday or his long-term health.

So all that being said, will it live up to the hype?

My vote (or my jinx, you choose) says yes. And even if somehow Big Brown gets beat, the only possible thing I could foresee is that Casino Drive beats him. But even then Brown should be right in the battle down to the wire.

[To be fair to Casino Drive, a little ink. He won his first race in Japan by 11 lengths and an amazing win on the Belmont track in his 2nd lifetime start. He’s a horse that just about any other year we’d be talking about a potential coming out party on the big stage]

But more likely, Big Brown will be right where he wants to be as the round the stretch. And on the beast of the track that is Belmont, there is a lot of room down to the wire after the turn. Expect him to inch up around the turn and when the time is right, Desormeaux will give him the signal and that awesome acceleration will leave no doubt.

With apologies to the FedEx guys, just about everyone else will be cheering for Brown to deliver, and I think this time the package makes history.

Chris Hahn is an IT consultant who guest writes for MRISports.com on horse racing and other topics.