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Saturday, June 7, 2008
An unexpected result at Belmont
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sometimes I think I know horse racing. Never have I been so sure that we had finally had a Triple Crown winner in the Belmont Stakes. This was Big Brown’s day. His year. He would join Secretariat in immortality. There was no fail in him. Maybe I felt that strong about Majestic Prince, but that was so long ago, who could remember? That was 1969. But even Majestic Prince came closer than Big Brown. Never has such an odds-on favorite ever finished last in such a monumental race.
First, I didn’t like his post position. Big Brown likes the outside, not the pole. You may have noticed, he had to take up twice before he found clearance on the turn. Then you said, “OK, that’s all he needs. Open space. Desormeaux could set his pace. This is just where they want to be.” Then, nothing happened. Big Brown began to look like a tourist in town. It was like reading a novel in which the hero gets killed. He just sat there, and you couldn’t believe what you were seeing.
I didn’t feel sorry for Rich Dutrow, his trainer. He has made so few admirers through Big Brown’s big run that it wasn’t easy to like the horse. But horses can’t choose their friends.
Maybe Dutrow thought Big Brown could win on three legs. Or maybe he really believed that the crack in his hoof was no more than the average guy’s hangnail. You have to believe, though, that this was Dutrow’s big play, and he had no intention of passing on it just because Big Brown had an aching hoof. What all this does is take away whatever glory Da’ Tara might have reaped in such a glorious scene.
Earlier in the day I’d seen Alan Garcia, the jockey, win a race on one of Nick Zito’s horses, and I’d thought, “What if this turns out to be an indicator of what’s to come later?” Had no idea such a crashing disaster might happen. He had done it before with Birdstone, Mary Lou Whitney’s horse that crashed Funny Cide’s party, but to take down Big Brown with a horse with a slash in his name? A total four-legged stranger?
I’ve seen upsets before, but this was even bigger than the upset that the horse named Upset dumped on us. I’m still going to have to sleep on it.
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