ELMONT, N.Y. — Da’ Tara did win. Ask the few who bet on the dark bay colt.
Da’ Tara became the first wire-to-wire winner in the Belmont Stakes since Swale in 1984. Big Brown, who did not win, did not become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978.
Da’ Tara paid $79 to win, $28 for place and $14.80 for show.
Big Brown paid nothing.
“Big Brown didn’t run his race today,” said Da’ Tara’s trainer, Nick Zito, almost apologetically. “He wasn’t himself. Da’ Tara was himself.”
Eibar Coa, the jockey of sixth-place finisher Tale of Ekati, offered this assessment of Saturday’s 140th Belmont Stakes: “At the half-mile pole (jockey Kent Desormeaux) hadn’t asked Big Brown to go. I was expecting him to go by us between the half-mile and three-eighths pole. I was surprised when I didn’t see that happen. I knew something was wrong with Big Brown. After Big Brown, the Belmont was a wide-open race.
“Anyone could have won it, and that’s what happened in the end.”
Desormeaux said he and the other jockeys were discussing, after the race, the merits of the 11 Triple Crown winners.
“They had to be freaks. It’s so hard to do it. Now, I know how awesome they must have been to do that,” he said.
The 90-degree temperatures may have affected Big Brown and the other horses, but they certainly affected the size of the crowd.
Fewer than 100,000 gathered despite the publicity surrounding Big Brown.
Zito, a Hall of Fame trainer, said he went to a small restaurant Friday night and told its owner he would return on Saturday night if his horse won.
“I’m not going to tell you the name of the restaurant because, if I do, I won’t be able to get a reservation,” Zito said.
Zito and Da’ Tara owner Robert LaPenta put deep thought into entering the horse at Belmont.
“It was easy, because I said to Bob: ‘Do you think we’re crazy?’ ” Zito said.
“He said: ‘No, put him in.’ ”
Da’ Tara did win.
People seem more absorbed, however, by who lost.
