Why did "Can't Miss" horse perform so poorly at Belmont?
Rick Dutrow, the trainer of Big Brown, the superstar colt that breezed to victory in this year's Kentucky Derby and Preakness was drenched in sweat after the race. He was befuddled how his unbeatable horse literally quit on him in the biggest race of both of their lives.
"I feel like a loser," he told reporters. Dutrow was unhappy to say the least about the efforts of his jockey, Kent Desormeaux. Dutrow was puzzled why Desormeaux maneuvered the horse around so frequently in the early part of the race.
The Belmont Stakes is a mile-and-a-half long and with only nine entries, there was plenty of time and plenty of track left for moves to be made.
As a result, Big Brown, who was running third for a good part of the race and looked to be in position to make a stretch run was spent by the time he reached the top of the stretch. Desormeaux decided not to push the horse for no reason on a 95-degree day and pulled Big Brown up, galloping to a last-place finish.
- B/R Ticket Guide
The throngs who flocked to the track immediately began to think the worst. Television analysts began to guess as well.
Is he hurt? Was he kicked in traffic?
As it turns out, neither. The horse may have felt a twinge in the quarter-crack in his hoof and altered his gait which could have led Desormeaux to ease him up. It was discovered later that was not the case.
Big Brown did look out of sorts, though. It could have been a phantom pain, or he could have just been out of breath.
"He had no gas left in the tank," was all Desormeaux would tell us after the race.
The experienced horse players around him all blamed Dutrow for the horse's failure. Big Brown did not receive his monthly dosage of legal steroids in mid-May. Even the most peripheral horse player knows not to alter a horse's regimen during racing season, unless it is endangering the horse's health.
Owner Micheal Iavarone had his own take. It was the track.
"It was like a beach out there," he said. The track was very loose and the dirt deeper than Big Brown had ever run on. Iavarone pointed to the slower finishing times of the previous winners of the day, even the Belmont winner, Da' Tara—who wired the field, finishing at 2:29—a second or two off the average winning time.
Big Brown is healthy today and that is about the only positive to come out of the Belmont. The question of why Big Brown was in such a clunker on the biggest day of his life may never truly be answered.
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7 months ago
BB looked good exiting the paddock towards the gate. He did get bumped as the horses broke out of the gate, but once he got to that outside position, he looked comfortable.
Honestly I think it was something BB was smart enough to realize wasn't right, even if they can't find anything. When Desormeaux felt that from BB, he was absolutely in-the-right to pull that horse up.
Great article!
7 months ago
What a typical challenge.. I call it horse sense. How many horses do the exact same thing, and Triple Crown winning ranks close to possibly Myth than any fairy tale I ever saw. Today there are more horses and either they like to win a race, or don,t like to race. Some horses are better off pulling the mill wagon. At today's gas prices let's take a second look at that possibility than finding the Mythical Tripical Crown horse. Mark S.
7 months ago
Most people who go to horse racing know there is a lot of crooked business going on. Maybe The jockey's bills are all paid and he has money in the bank, maybe Zito really did not want Big Brown to win. We were at the race, it was very hot and the track was deep and loose, but Desormeaux certainly showed no emotion after pulling up. I really think someone was paid off and Dutrow knew nothing about it.
from 7 months ago
I can't speak to a fix, but I agree about Kent's demeanor after the race..
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