Big Brown defied odds to win the 134th Kentucky Derby by 4 3/4 on Saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville. Despite the mammoth race turned in by the IEAH Stables and Paul Pompa Jr.-owned horse, the day may be more remembered by the tragic collapse of Eight Belles, the filly who finished second.

Shortly after crossing the finish line Eight Belles collapsed in horrific fashion. Dr. Larry Bramlage, the on-call veterinarian for the race, said the simultaneous snapping of both front ankles, which occurred as the filly was galloping out after the race, was a freak incident the like of which he had never seen in decades of veterinary practice. Eight Belles was euthanized moments later.

It marked the second time in a row that a favorite won the Run for the Roses. The horse also became the second winner to start from the No. 20 post. The gelding Clyde Van Dusen did it in 1929. The colt also became the first Derby winner since Regret in 1915 to have raced only three times previously. He is only the third in 60 years to win after racing in just two Derby preps.

The colt covered the 1¼ miles in 2:01.82 in front of the second-largest crowd (157,770) in Derby history. He paid $6.80, $5 and $4.80. Eight Belles paid $10.60 and $6.40, and Denis of Cork returned $11.60.  Big Brown earned $1,451,800 for the win and boosted his earnings to $2,114,500 in just four starts. There's no doubt he will head to the Preakness in two weeks as the heavy favorite as he goes for the second leg of the Triple Crown.

Everyone knows that the major league baseball teams that spend the most money end up performing the best, right?  Well, in 2008 it isn't working out quite like that.

A stat geek named Ben Fry has put together a pretty cool looking graphic that orders each team's record and payroll, and it's pretty clear that, in the season's first month, there's about zero correlation between salary expense and performance.  They also have graphics for the previous three seasons, I can't get them to show on my screen, but your computer may be more advanced than mine.

It's still very early in the season, so it's hard to read too much into this analysis, but it's still an interesting item to keep an eye on.