Big Brown Busts Out

Don’t know how many of you tuned in for the Belmont Stakes yesterday, but the big story there was that Big Brown not only lost the Belmont Stakes, his jockey Kent Desormeaux declined to run him anywhere near his capacity for the last quarter mile or so. He simply eased him out of contention in the home stretch. What happened? Nobody knows. Big Brown was by all measures as healthy as the day he won the Derby here in Louisville. However three big races in five weeks is a demanding schedule for even the strongest horse. It was also quite hot, the dirt on the track was deep, and of course the Belmont Stakes is the longest of the Triple Crown races at a mile and a half. Any or all of them could have been a factor. Maybe it was simply that, as my 4-year-old has become fond of saying these last two weeks, he didn’t “feel like it”.

Congratulations to Da’ Tara and jockey Alan Garcia, who won a stunning 38-1 upset.