June 07, 2008
Maybe Next Year
Denis Paquin / AP
What a big disappointment. Big Brown just didn't seem to have it today. He was pulled up by his jockey and finished last. I hope that he isn't injured.
Article here
Da' Tara wins Belmont Stakes
By Larry Stewart, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
4:08 PM PDT, June 7, 2008
BELMONT, N.Y. -- He didn't do it.
Trying to become the horse racing's Triple Crown winner in 30 years, Big Brown on Saturday instead became just another horse to win the first two legs and then lose in the third, the Belmont Stakes.
Big Brown, running steroid free for the first time, ran third throughout much of Saturday's $1 million race at Belmont Park but was pulled up by jockey Kent Desormeaux going around the far turn. Big Brown then galloped out to finish a distant 10th and last.
Da' Tara, winning for only the second time in eight races, defeated runnerup Denis of Cork by 5½ lengths to pull off the huge upset. Da' Tara paid $79 to win. Anak Nakal and Ready's Echo finished in a dead heat for third.
Desormeaux said Big Brown just didn't have it today. "I had no horse."
And why was that?
"I have no idea," he said immediately after the race. He said he pulled him up because "I knew he wouldn't be fifth."
Affirmed, who did it in 1978, remains the 11th and last Triple Crown winner. Big Brown is now 6-1.
There had been some speculation that the quarter crack that recently developed on Big Brown's left front hoof was more signifcant than trainer Rick Dutrow and others connected to the horse were saying.
However, Big Brown had been training well.
And up until Saturday, he appeared to be a super horse. He had won his first race – by a whopping 11¼ lengths -- on the turf at Saratoga in upstate New York last Sept. 3 for trainer Pat Reynolds. When Paul Pompa, who named the horse, sold 75% interest in the colt to IEAH Stables, he was turned over to Dutrow.
Because of continuous hoof problems, Big Brown didn't start again until March 5, running in a turf race at Gulfstream Park in Florida and winning by 12¾ lengths.
After that race, Dutrow became calling Big Brown "a freak" of nature.
Victories in the Florida Derby by five lengths, the Kentucky Derby by 4¾, and the Preakness by 5¼ proved Dutrow right. And last week he said it was a "foregone conclusion" he would win the Triple Crown.
Saturday's race proved Dutrow very, very wrong.