Providentially, Philadelphia Park has just such a race on that date.

Sal Sinatra, PhillyPark's director of racing, made it known to the Big Brown people that the race was there and, with Big Brown's participation, there was a chance of a substantial purse increase from the listed $250,000 for the PTHA President's Cup.

"I told them I would double the purse to $500,000," Sinatra said. "I would add an additional $250,000 for each jewel of the Triple Crown a horse in the race has won."

So, if Big Brown's people chose to run at PhillyPark, the purse would be $1 million.

Monmouth Park is also in play for a potential Big Brown appearance on Sept. 13. The Monmouth Stakes will have a base purse of $200,000, going up to $500,000 if Big Brown runs.

During the day yesterday, it appeared Big Brown's connections were going to come to PhillyPark on Monday to walk the grass course and assess its condition. Late in the day, Monmouth Park emerged as the clear favorite to get Big Brown.

Michael Iavarone, of the Big Brown ownership team, said it was "75 percent" that Big Brown would run at Monmouth.

Iavarone has a relationship with Monmouth officials as the result of Big Brown's appearance there in the Haskell. Iavarone and trainer Rick Dutrow each got $50,000 appearance fees for the Haskell. There would be no appearance fees this time, just the purse bump.

Big Brown obviously was eligible to run in the Sept. 1 Pennsylvania Derby, also a $1 million race. But Dutrow said that race was too soon after the Haskell. So, Big Brown was not even nominated.

The President's Cup is 1 1/8 miles on grass for 3-year-olds and up. It has been a nice race. With Big Brown, it would have become an event. But it does not appear as if it is going to happen.

"Monmouth makes a lot of sense for us," Iavarone said. "We really like that the people took to Big Brown. I like the turf course better. It's less money, but we've had good karma there. It's the race track that makes the most sense for us. We're definitely more likely to run at Monmouth."

The PhillyPark grass course is an issue. It is not pristine. It has not been raced on since July 29. The first races on it since then are scheduled for Saturday during Pennsylvania Day at the Races.

Sinatra had been working on getting Big Brown for a while, mostly talking to Mike Sellitto, the agent for Kent Desormeaux, Big Brown's rider. On Sunday, Sinatra got a phone call saying the Big Brown people were going to pass on the PhillyPark race. On Monday, Sellitto called Sinatra again and said the Big Brown people wanted to reconsider.

Now, it looks like Monmouth. The President's Cup purse would revert to its original $250,000 and Big Brown would be a might-have-been for PhillyPark officials who tried very hard to get the Derby winner.

By the way, a Derby winner has never run at PhillyPark, after winning the Derby. Smarty Jones' first two races were at PhillyPark, but, even though he trained there after winning the 2004 Derby, he did not race there again. Spectacular Bid, the 1979 Derby winner, made his final start of 1978 in the Heritage Stakes at what was then known as Keystone. *