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Big Brown Gets Crowned

Posted on: Sunday, 8 June 2008, 06:00 CDT

By Tim Wilkin, Albany Times Union, N.Y.

Jun. 8--ELMONT -- Big Brown was a big bust in his attempt to become the 12th horse to win thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown.

As a crowd of 94,476 wilted in 96 heat at Belmont Park, so did Big Brown.

The charismatic colt from trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. was pulled up late in the 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes and lost his chance to be anointed a racing legend.

Instead, Big Brown goes into the books as the 21st horse to win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes and then lose the Belmont. But he did make some dubious history -- Big Brown is the first of them to finish last.

Jockey Kent Desormeaux pulled up Big Brown at the quarter pole as spectators, who bet Big Brown down to 1-4 odds, watched in disbelief. Da' Tara, trained by Nick Zito and ridden by Alan Garcia, took the lead from the start of the marathon and never gave it up, winning by 5 /4 lengths at 38-1 odds in a time of 2:29.65.

As Zito high-fived friends and well-wishers while dancing down the Belmont tunnel to the winner's circle, a dazed-looking Desormeaux hopped off Big Brown, gave him three pats on his flank and watched as the colt was led back toward the paddock.

Dutrow, his blue shirt soaked with sweat, walked behind Big Brown and said nothing to the horde of reporters who followed.

Fifty minutes later, he still had no answers after watching Big Brown walk the shedrow of the test barn.

"He doesn't seem to be hurt," Dutrow said. "I watched him cool out and he doesn't seem to be off in any way. I am looking for a problem and I am not seeing one."

Big Brown missed three days of training between the Preakness and Belmont when a quarter crack was discovered on his left front hoof.

Dutrow had said the injury would have no bearing on the race. He also predicted that Big Brown would win the Belmont, saying during the week it was a "foregone conclusion."

Big Brown looked like even more of a lock when Casino Drive, the Japanese import considered to be his stiffest Belmont competition, was scratched with a bruised left hind hoof Saturday morning.

Despite the heavy odds, maybe there were, in hindsight, signs that things weren't going to be right. As Big Brown walked a lap in the paddock, Desormeaux, on his back, kept putting his index finger to his lips, asking the crowd not to yell and scream. Was something bothering Big Brown?

When the horse came out of the gate, he steadied and broke outward. In the first turn, he bumped into Anak Nakal, another Zito horse who would finish in a dead heat for third with Ready's Echo (Denis of Cork was second).

Big Brown, who had no problems in any of his first five races, saw what traffic is like at rush hour on the Long Island Expressway.

"I was watching Big Brown and, obviously, he was not Big Brown," Zito said.

After running in third -- and wide -- most of the way up the backstretch, Desormeaux started riding Big Brown into the turn. But the explosive move that always has been there wasn't on this day. At the top of the stretch, Desormeaux called it quits on the Belmont and the Triple Crown.

"I had no horse," Desormeaux said. "He's the best horse I've ever been on, so I took care of him. I think I'm numb, really. A little lost."

Back at the barn, Dutrow spoke for 6 minutes and 11 seconds, and still he had no answers. He said he will scope the horse to look for something. There is a chance that he just didn't show up.

"Everyone who was with the Big Brown camp, I'm sure are very disappointed, just like I am," Dutrow said. "If we feel he is 100 percent as we are getting back into training with him, I'm sure we will go forward with him. If not, I'm sure we'll just do the next thing, which is to retire him." Wilkin can be reached at 454-5415 or by e-mail at twilkin@timesunion.com.

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Source: Times Union

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