What does it mean when they say Brown was 'rank' at the start?

Question

thanks. I guess that #1 gate sure was no bargain for Brown. it seemed like he was having a real tough time in traffic until he got outside.

Answer 1

when he started to get in traffic he almost ran right up one of their butts.  when the rider attampted to rate (slow) him and regroup the horse was having none of it.  he faught the rider for 3 or 4 strides and then just kind a spit the bit.  by the time they made it to the strech, he was washed out from the fight.

Answer 2

Maybe Big Brown was acting up because he didn't

get his steriod juice "fix".  He obviously can't run without it.

The racing industry is full of crooks, and trainer Dutrow is

one of them.

Answer 3

On the first turn he was stuck behind horses and he was throwing his head up and pulling on the bit and trying to run through the bridle.  You can see that the horse isn't just galloping along comfortably... the horse was throwing himself around and trying to throw himself through the little gap between the 2 horses in front of him.

Answer 4

In all my years of watching horse racing on TV, I'd never heard this term and wondered the same thing so I did a search and found this definition:

Rank: "A description used when a horse fights the rider's attempt to relax it during the early and middle stages of a race, before full speed is needed."

I was stunned to see that Big Brown was not responding to Kent. I watched him in the Florida Derby, Kentucky Derby and Preakness. He's always responded to Kent in a split second.

As I watched him coming down the back stretch, I had a gut feeling that something was very wrong. I'm disappointed that he didn't go all the way but I believe Kent did the right thing in easing him up.

I still believe he was the best horse in the race, but something was just very wrong with him. I hope we don't have to wait too long to hear just what it is.

Klea <heaving a deep sigh>