Big Brown's Mysterious Loss
ABC's Chris Bury investigates why the favored horse came in dead last.
June 9, 2008— -- Long before the bugle sounded for the Belmont Stakes, Big Brown had vanquished all his competition in the expectations race.
"Everybody expected Big Brown to win the Belmont," Washington Post columnist Andrew Beyer said.
Former jockey and ABC News consultant Jerry Bailey said that it would be "not only a win for Big Brown, but a question of how many lengths would he win by."
The expectations did not seem misplaced. The horse had crushed the competition in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, the first two legs of the Triple Crown. His owner, Michael Iavarone, held out lofty visions of Big Brown becoming the first horse in 30 years to win the Triple Crown.
"I expect him to win it. I think it's his destiny," Iavarone had said.
But Destiny had a mind of her own. Today, the sport of kings is in a state of shock, trying to come to grips with how such a sure bet failed so badly.
At the start, the obscure Da' Tara, the longest of long shots, broke from the gate to never look back. Then, on the far turn, Big Brown's jockey, Kent Desormeaux, held off to avoid the crowd, maneuvering with Big Brown on the outside. But what transpired next baffles racing veterans.
"When (Desormeaux) asked the horse to start running in earnest, there was no response," Beyer said.
What went wrong? Could it have been the cracked front hoof the colt had suffered weeks earlier?
"I just can't hang my hat on that being the reason," Bailey said. "He would have shown some signs of lameness or soreness, which he did not."
Why did Big Brown, once so full of heart, seem so lethargic now? Was it that his trainers had stopped using steroids? The colt's trainers maintained the horse had not been given the drugs since April. Perhaps his downfall was the 96-degree heat, or a dry track, as his jockey claimed.
"It was hot as hell out there and the race track didn't hold him up," Bailey said.
But Beyer didn't buy that reasoning.
"That's one of the oldest excuses in the book and it doesn't hold here," he said.
Two full days after the race, Big Brown's owners have reported no specific ailments.
"I can only be left with the assumption that it was mental and he simply said, 'I quit,'" Bailey said, taking another guess.
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