It is safe to say this will be the toughest field Big Brown has ever faced.

Saturday’s Monmouth Stakes, with a purse of $500K assuming Big Brown breaks from the gate, boasts graded-stakes winners Shakis, Proudinsky, Drum Major and Silver Tree amongst the field of 11. When compared to the Haskell, where he was all-out to defeat Coal Play, he will need to step up his game to reward the expected big crowd at Monmouth Park.

Shakis enters off a scintillating score in the Bernard Baruch — on grass at this distance — and Proudinsky could be sitting on a huge effort for Frankel. It would be no surprise if either of these established turf runners slay the favorite, and will do so at generous odds.