ELMONT, N.Y. — There was no celebration or coronation, only commiseration. Big Brown is The Horse Who Wouldn’t Be King.
He is not Pegasus. He cannot fly, after all. He is not Secretariat. He could not win the Triple Crown after a mile.
He was a pretender to the throne.
Big Brown was supposed to win the Belmont Stakes in a walk. Instead, he barely crossed the finish line in a walk.
From first to worst. From heralded to humbled. From impending royalty to royal flushed. The UPS horse didn’t deliver.
The Crown Prince was reduced to a Clown Prince on Saturday afternoon.
A half hour after his fall from grace with the track, Big Brown, his brown back glowing and dry, paced in a circle outside his barn, while trainer Rick Dutrow Jr., who had claimed victory was “a foregone conclusion,” leaned on a fence, his shirt soaked in perspiration, stared at the horse and ripped off his tie.
“Everyone who was a Big Brown fan, I’m sure, was disappointed, just like I am,” said Dutrow, when he finally spoke. “Something has to not be right for him to be pulled up in a race, so I have to try to find out what it is.”
Several hundred yards away, Ed Seigenfeld, the executive vice president of Triple Crown Productions, prepared to pack away the Triple Crown trophy.
For the sixth time since 1978, Seigenfeld has brought the trophy to Belmont Park. For the sixth time he is taking it back to the Kentucky Derby Museum. “It didn’t happen again,” he said.
Da’ Tara, as long a shot as a longshoreman would be in this race, ran first from beginning to end, gate to wire.
“We were lucky,” said Da’ Tara trainer Nick Zito. “I actually was watching what was happening to Big Brown.”
A crowd of 94,476, well shy of the 135,000 expected, and a worldwide television audience were wondering what was happening to the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner.
Big Brown didn’t make a run on the backstretch, then began to lose ground and hope and interest before the final turn. Finally, jockey Kent Desormeaux gave up, eased up and pulled Big Brown to the middle of the track.
Big Brown wound up dead tired and dead last.
“I was done. I had no horse,” jockey Desormeaux said.
Big Brown didn’t conclude the Big Three races with a Big Bang. Dud.
There were fears — particularly because of the Eight Belles tragedy in the Derby — that Big Brown had been severely injured in the first mile, or that the cracked hoof had hobbled him.
Dutrow, a track doctor and Desormeaux asserted that Big Brown was not hurt.
But there will be many swirling theories why the 3-year-old, who had a torrid comeback in the Derby and an easy ride in the Preakness, was no value in the Belmont. More than $6.5 million was bet on Big Brown to win. Casino Drive, who was supposed to provide Big Brown with more than a passing challenge, had been scratched Saturday morning with a bruised foot. Bettors had to think about Denis of Cork, Tale of Ekati and — what, Mutual of Omaha?
Was the slight crack in the hoof significantly more of a problem than Dutrow and doctors had believed? Was the three-week layoff between races and the four-day layoff from workouts because of repairs on the quarter crack a serious factor in Big Brown’s training for the Belmont?
What about the presence, or absence, of steroids? Dutrow had been giving Winstrol, an anabolic steroid legal in most states for race horses, to Big Brown but stopped in mid-April. We’ve seen the changes in baseball players when they start the steroids, and when they stop. Had the three races weakened Big Brown? Had he not been run enough, or too much?
Did the extreme temperature and humidity on Long Island sap Big Brown’s strength? Was his heart not in the effort? Was the horse overhyped and overwhelmed? Are they just terrible 3s, and Big Brown was the best in show for a couple of races?
When Desormeaux decided “let’s engage,” Big Brown offered no reply, no movement, no energy. “No popped tires. He ran out of gas,” the jockey said.
Da’ Tara ran free. You Da’ Horse.
It was over before it was over. Desormeaux knew “before the final turn, the 5/8ths pole,” then surrendered. Those sitting in the stretch never got to see Big Brown run Saturday. He was a carriage horse to the finish line, then stopped abruptly.
The horse had been greeted with a standing ovation when it entered the track. It left the track to eerie silence.
There would be no encore. Performance is over; say goodbye.
Big Brown is not Affirmed (the last Triple Crown winner in 1978), or Secretariat, or in a class with the other nine fabled champions.
Big Brown got a nation excited, brought the Triple Crown trophy to New York (once more), opened Dutrow’s mouth and closed the discussion after two races.
Brown, from post position one, was jostled out of the gate, and his back legs seemed to flex. But he settled into third, relaxed at the first turn. Holders of tickets on Big Brown were considering whether to cash them, frame them or sell them on eBay. Brown was still third at the half-mile and at the mile.
Here he comes. There he goes.
Not only couldn’t Brown catch Da’ Tara, he couldn’t hold up the marching band. Big Brown had no giddy-up, had no moves. If Desormeaux had gone to the whip in the stretch, Brown would have turned into whipped cream.
“I don’t see a problem, and I’m looking for one,” Dutrow said. “I’ll figure things out as we go. … It was a very disappointing race, but the horse looks like he’s fine. He didn’t get the Triple Crown, but we got the Derby and the Preakness, and that was great. We’re going to check him out and see if he’s OK. … If he’s not, we’ll just do the next thing, which is to retire him.”
In the sport of kings, Big Brown is not one, or 1.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
LONGSHOTS
Da’ Tara became the first wire-to-wire winner in the Belmont Stakes since Swale in 1984 and the fourth-highest longshot to win. Here are the highest payoffs for winners of the Belmont Stakes since 1940 for $2 mutuel bets with winner, year and price:
Horse Year Payout
Sarava 2002 $142.50
Sherluck 1961 $132.10
Temperance Hill 1980 $108.80
Da’ Tara 2008 $79.00
Birdstone 2004 $74.00
Pass Catcher 1971 $71.00
Lemon Drop Kid 1999 $61.50
Commendable 2000 $39.60
Bounding Home 1944 $34.70
Colonial Affair 1993 $29.80
Avatar 1975 $28.40
SO CLOSE, BUT YET SO FAR
Twenty-one horses have won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness only to lose their chance at the Triple Crown at Belmont. A look at the last five:
Year Horse Belmont finish
2008 Big Brown Ninth, pulled up nearing quarter pole
2004 Smarty Jones Second, 1 length behind
2003 Funny Cide Third, 5 lengths behind
2002 War Emblem Eighth, 19 1/2 lengths behind
1999 Charismatic Third, 1 1/2 lengths behind
BY THE NUMBERS
11 – Number of times a horse entered the Belmont Stakes with a chance to win the Triple Crown since Affirmed did it in 1978. Those horses finished second four times, third four times, fourth, eighth and Saturday’s ninth-place (last) finish.
