Major races: Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, Haskell Invitational

Awards: 2008 Eclipse Award for Champion Three-Year-Old Male

Post Career: Retired from racing in 2009. Stood at stud at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Kentucky. He has sired numerous stakes winners and has become a successful breeding stallion. Some of his notable offspring include Big Blue Kitten, Brown Almighty, and Shimmering Aspen.

April 10 - Big Brown

He was named by Paul Pompa who was in the shipping business. Yep, named for UPS's nickname, Brown.

Big Brown needed to win the Florida Derby to qualify for the Kentucky Derby. He was training up at Palm Meadows about 40 minutes north of Gulfstream Park. I was the artist in residence at Gulfstream that year and every day, the talk around the track was about how Big Brown was training. The last couple of weeks before the Florida Derby, caravans of car would form to make the drive up just to watch him breeze. He won the Florida Derby and was on the Kentucky Derby.

There was an event the night before the KY Derby hosted by the Permanently Disabled Jockey Fund. It was crazy as I painted Big Brown in the #20 saddle cloth that he would be wearing the next day. The painting brought $10,000 of him winning the Kentucky Derby and the race hadn't even run yet!

Between the hype at his Florida base and then the incredible confidence in him before the derby, I can't say I've seen anything like it, before or since.