Eat your heart out, Mr. Ed

The mystery surrounding Big Brown and his failure to win the Triple Crown continues. It didn't help that his trainer, Rick Dutrow Jr., snubbed Congress on Thursday and didn't show up for a hearing dealing with the ills of horse racing.

To get answers straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak, David Thomas of the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram interviewed Big Brown.

Thomas: "Much has been written about you. Some have said you weren't worthy of winning the Triple Crown. Some have said you were merely the best of a weak group of 3-year-olds. How does that make you feel?"

Big Brown: "I can honestly say that I don't read newspapers, so those things don't bother me."

• DUMB QUESTION -- Thomas, in his interview with Big Brown, also asked the horse what he did after his Belmont disappointment.

Big Brown: "Not much. Just went to the barn, got off to myself and watched my favorite baseball team play on TV."

Thomas: "Who's your favorite team?"

Big Brown: "Duh -- the Phillies."

• GETTING EVEN -- Thomas' interview with Big Brown wasn't exclusive. A Foxsports. com blogger who calls himself Dudski earlier claimed to have interviewed the horse.

When the blogger tells Big Brown that after the Belmont jockey Kent Desormeaux said, "I had no horse," Big Brown's response is:

"Why that little (bleep). I drag his dead (bleep) around these (bleep) tracks and he says 'I had no horse.' What did he think he was riding, a big (bleep) red dog?"

When asked what he thought when Desormeaux pulled him up, Big Brown said, "I had no jockey."

• WINE CONNOISSEUR -- Tommy Lasorda is quite the expert when it comes to food. And he's also a wine entrepreneur.

His pinot grigio, created by Casa Torelli Imports of Santa Monica, Calif., was named best wine in its class at the recent Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits' first Wine World of Sports competition at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds.

Lasorda sent over a bottle to his friend Whitey Ford, who was in L.A. last week to preview a memorabilia sale to take place during All-Star week in New York.

"All the balls I signed for Tommy over the years and he sends me a $3 bottle of wine?" Ford told Lasorda's assistant, Colin Gunderson.

Gunderson pointed out it actually was a $35 bottle of wine.

• L.A. FLAW -- Boston teams keep winning championships, but when it comes to "more compelling, more exciting, more screwed-up," ESPN.com columnist Gene Wojciechowski wrote, Chicago is the "new and undisputed leader in the sports city clubhouse.

"Los Angeles? Talk to us when you get an NFL franchise. Until then, you're Sacramento with traffic, Kobe and the Reggie Bush investigation."

• SAMPLE THIS -- In case it has sneaked up on you, the start of the Tour de France is less than two weeks away.

"You know what that means," Richard Oliver of the San Antonio Express-News wrote. "Gentlemen, start your urine."

REVIEW-JOURNAL WIRE SERVICES