ELMONT, N.Y. — The end came on the far turn, Big Brown territory, where the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner always had the opposition at his mercy. In the 140th Belmont Stakes on Saturday, however, the stride, the speed and the power were not there.
When jockey Kent Desormeaux asked his undefeated colt to take the race to streaking long shot leader, Da’ Tara, he found no response. Not only did Big Brown — on the cusp of the first Triple Crown in 30 years — not keep up, he began to drop back. Desormeaux, sensing something wrong, stopped riding hard and Denis of Cork, rallying on the outside, shoved Big Brown aside.
With Desormeaux barely moving on his back, Big Brown began a slow, sad jog to the finish line at Belmont Park.
Moments after Da’ Tara, the longest shot in the field of nine with odds of 38-1, crossed the finish line 51/4 lengths in front of Denis of Cork, Big Brown came along to a wave of boos from the enormous crowd. The horse that trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. said was a “foregone conclusion” to win the Triple Crown finished last.
“By the time we got to the turn, I had no horse,” a stunned Desormeaux said. “This horse is the best horse I’ve ever ridden, and I took care of him.”
Da’ Tara, ridden by Alan Garcia, won the 11/2-mile Belmont — called “The Test of the Champion” — in 2 minutes 29.65 seconds. He paid $79 for a $2 bet.
Desormeaux pulled up Big Brown as soon as he crossed the line and quickly dismounted. The saddle was removed and Big Brown was led through a tunnel underneath the grandstand to be examined by veterinarians.
Asked what happened, Desormeaux said, “I have no idea.”
Dutrow refused to comment on Big Brown’s condition or the defeat. The horse was taken back to the barn of trainer Bobby Frankel, where he had spent the past three weeks while preparing for the Belmont, and exercise rider Michelle Nevin walked him along the shed row.
With his ears pricked, Big Brown periodically stopped and looked at the cameras trained on him and then continued on as Dutrow stared silently at his horse, leaning on a wooden fence.
“When he pulled up, the veterinarian on the racetrack looked at him and there was obviously nothing wrong,” said Larry Bramlage, the chief on-site veterinarian for the race. “I was watching him when he came down the stretch. He was not showing any lameness, so whatever was bothering him, whatever made him not have his race today, was not outwardly apparent.”
A little over a week before the race, Big Brown developed a quarter crack in his left front hoof that required stainless steel sutures. The colt missed three days galloping in the morning, but Dutrow and hoof expert Ian McKinlay insisted the injury would have no effect on his performance. On Friday, hours after a 11/2-mile morning gallop on the Belmont Park main track, McKinlay applied a fiberglass patch to the crack.
When asked if Big Brown could run well with it on, McKinlay said, “As far as that crack goes, I’ll guarantee that.”
Dutrow also said in the days before the Belmont that he had not given Big Brown a shot of the anabolic steroid Winstrol since before the Kentucky Derby. Dutrow’s horses receive a shot of the legal muscle-builder on the 15th of each month, but the trainer said he didn’t believe Big Brown needed it.
With the loss, Big Brown became the third undefeated horse to go into the final leg of the Triple Crown and lose, following Majestic Prince and Smarty Jones.
The start of the Belmont was a rough one for Big Brown, but he appeared to right himself quickly. Coming out of post position No. 1, Desormeaux moved out fast, looking to come off the rail and set up in a stalking position behind Da’ Tara.
Tale of Ekati, hustled by jockey Eibar Coa, bumped Big Brown, who recovered and settled into third place on the outside through a first quarter-mile in 23.82 seconds and a moderate half-mile in 48.30 seconds.
In March, Big Brown had crushed Da’ Tara by 231/2 lengths in the Florida Derby, and Desormeaux said he had no reason for concern.
“For him, it was a slow pace,” Desormeaux said. “The first scenario was to get to the outside at my convenience. When I got to the outside going into the first turn, I said, ‘This is it,’ but there was no popped tire; he was out of gas.”
Da’ Tara, who entered the race with only one win in seven starts, opened up a five-length lead after 11/4 miles. He had gone into the gate fractious and lathered in the 90-degree heat.
The horse is trained by Nick Zito, who engineered the upset of Smarty Jones in 2004 — the last horse before Big Brown to come into the Belmont on the edge of a Triple Crown — with his horse Birdstone.
“When Big Brown started fading, I started jumping up and down like a jumping Jack,” Zito said. “I was watching Big Brown, and, obviously, he wasn’t Big Brown.”
Big Brown was scheduled to run in the Travers Stakes this fall and then the Breeders’ Cup Classic before going on to a lucrative stud career at Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky. Talk of a meeting with 2007 horse of the year Curlin had begun to grow. Now, his future is in doubt.
Desormeaux said his respect for the Triple Crown champions of the past only grew with the defeat.
“I can’t fathom what kind of freaks those 11 Triple Crown winners were,” he said.
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