Horse Racing

Posted by BarbaraAnne Helberg

Okay, now we have evidence, let's try this one more time. Big Brown lost the Triple Crown. He ran badly. Why? First reported in The Blood-Horse magazine in a statement from owner Michael Iavarone, BB came back from the race with a loose shoe described as "no issue" on his left hind. (June 14, pg. 3025 -- "Big Brown, Connections Regroup After Mystifying Performance".)

Photographic evidence now shows a significantly loose right hind shoe (June 21, pg. 3160 -- Dispatches, "Dutrow, Desormeaux Mend Fences).

Gary Stevens, retired top jockey, now TV analyst, says: "It had to be uncomfortable. It's pretty significant..."

D.Wayne Lukas, top active trainer, says: "Good horses can win without a hind shoe, let alone a loose nail."

I gotta go with Gary. Gee, D.Wayne, did you see the picture in Blood-Horse? How could a horse run well with a shoe hanging as badly as that?! It wasn't a case of a loose nail, or a shoe thrown off altogether.

"To win the Triple Crown, everything has to line up absolutely perfect. The weather, the horse's condition, the track conditions, everything has to be just absolutely perfect." -- USA Today newspaper, June 6, 2008, quoting John Veitch, trainer of Alydar, who chased Affirmed in all three classics to second place.

The horse's shoes...very much part of "everything". And how ironic to have a hind shoe go wrong after all the attention paid to his front two.

Posted by BarbaraAnne Helberg

In the Nick Zito barn, the controversy is also discussed:

Fierce Wind: (fiercely) "Hey, kid! Da'! You didn't do nothing!"

Da' Tara: (winner of the Belmont Stakes) "Wh-What? Sir?"

Fierce Wind: (laughing) "Yeah, that's right! Didn't you hear? Big Brown had a loose shoe in the Belmont."

Cool Coal Man: "Yeah, I read that."

Anak Nakal: "Oh, dear."

War Pass: "What are you talking about, Windy?"

Fierce Wind: (haughtily "Hey, Your Highness --"

War Pass: "Knock that off! What's this about a loose shoe?"

Fierce Wind: "Okay. Yeah. Hey, don't you watch ESPN? It's all over the networks and the media!"

War Pass: "What?! Did you see it, Nakie?"

Anak Nakal: "No, Your Highness."

War Pass: "Stop it!"

Fierce Wind: "Brown had a loose shoe, Pass."

Stevil: "Yep. From the beginning of the race, the photo says."

Da' Tara: (eyes bugging) "Darn!"

War Pass: "It's okay, kid. You still won the race. It's history."

Fierce Wind: "Ongoing history."

War Pass: "Are you certain of this, Windy?"

Fierce Wind: "Were you listening? There's a photo. The loose shoe is plain as day."

Stevil: "Now no one knows if Big Brown could have won if that shoe hadn't come loose."

Da' Tara: (hanging his head) "Does this mean my Belmont win will have an asterisk beside it in the record books?"

Posted by BarbaraAnne Helberg

Let it go about Richard Dutrow, Jr. and Big Brown. Have a little more Bob Baffert-like sense of humor. You know Baffert, the guy with oodles of major winners, including two Dubai Classic champs, who can't get into the Hall of Fame because he talks too much and trained the wrong types of horses?

Sports Illustrated wonders "What Happened to Big Brown"? What happened is he's a horse, of course, not a programmed robot. How many times do you hear a jockey say about a particular mount, "It wasn't his/her day"?

Well...Da'. The Belmont Stakes wasn't BB's day. After overcoming hoof problems and having no real training since the Preakness, BB immaturely fought his jockey to just...go.

What if Dutrow had been willing to let the eager BB go? Bet BB would've eaten his competition alive, Secretariat-like. That Belmont strategy wasn't logical to anyone. Except BB. Let me go, people!

Had that been the case, critics would be singing BB's praises. Rather than (now) calling him "less than ordinary", they would be saying he's so talented he defies logic.

BB rated in the Derby, and especially hard in the Preakness, then still stole the shows with a brilliant turn of foot when asked. Too eager to cut loose in the Belmont, he ran rank. His first clunker.

If BB were to continue racing and maturing, the only horse in training out there right now who could beat him is Curlin.

Less than ordinary. Like Whirlaway.

Oh...BB had a very loose shoe on his right hind in the Belmont. Da'.

Posted by BarbaraAnne Helberg

War Pass: (high-hoofing his stablemates) "Now that's what I'm talkin' about! Let's hear it for Da' Tara, son of Tiznow!"

Cool Coal Man: (stomping his hooves) "Big Brown who!?"

War Pass: "Gang, focus is everything. You gotta have heart, of course, but focus will always carry you through when your heart fails you."

Anak Nakal: "That was great, Da'! I had focus, too, Your Highness!"

War Pass: "Nakie, knock that off!"

Anak Nakal: (gazing downward) "I still think of her, though."

Da' Tara: "Eight Belles?"

Cool Coal Man: (rolling his eyes) "Who else?"

Da' Tara: "Gosh, were you two in love?"

Anak Nakal: (looking soulfully at Da' Tara) "The whole world loved Eight Belles."

Da' Tara: "Emmm. Yeah...I'm sorry, Nakie."

Anak Nakal: "It's okay, Da'. Stuff happens...every day."

Cool Coal Man: "Hey, Da'. How does it feel to win your first stakes?"

Da' Tara: (grinning) "It's like a whole different world."

Cool Coal Man: "Yeah. Call your dad yet?"

Da' Tara: "Yeah. He was really excited. But some days it's really great for yourself, isn't it?"

War Pass: "Yes, it is, kid. Good job today, Nakie. You're doing fine. Hey, kid, even so, you looked like a chip off the ol' block out there. If you make the Breeders' Cup roster, don't forget your ol' man was a two-time champion there."

Da' Tara: (giving a laughing snort) "We don't get much chance to forget that, do we?"

War Pass: "Only game in town, kid."

Posted by BarbaraAnne Helberg

Just a shallow thought from a disappointed, bleeding mind -- Did Big Brown have a Secretariat-like Belmont in him if the game plan from the get-go from trainer Richard Dutrow, Jr. had been to give BB his head if there was no early killer pace (there wasn't)?

Hindsight, of course. Wishful thinking. Boo-hoo after thought.

Certainly not the usual way to approach the Belmont Stakes' grueling "test of a champion" 1-1/2 miles. But wouldn't it have been awesome if it had worked? BB by 20 lengths!

The Belmont is generally considered in the hands of the jockey -- remember Ron Turcotte (on Secretariat) saying, (the horse) "...did it himself" -- to rate his horse through the early going and wait for a last burst after his mount has passed through the final sweeping turn. Three-year-olds don't run 1-1/2 miles before the Belmont Stakes, nor seldom do they see the distance again.

Inexplicably, BB wouldn't rate in the Belmont. He shook his head at Kent Desormeaux the first several furlongs, but Desormeaux got him to a good spot despite the antics. However, when KD wanted to plug in, BB's circuitry was dead.

Big Brown's exercise rider, Michelle Nevin, told us all week how BB did things his way. It was no secret that BB's best had been saved in the Preakness. So, if Dutrow, who was so sure of a Belmont victory, had let him run like a loose freight train to prove his point...?

Ah...well. Interesting speculation. A BB-Curlin matchup in the fall Breeders' Cup Classic? (Curlin, the older and wiser, since you asked.)

Posted by BarbaraAnne Helberg

Riding Thoroughbreds is Kent Desormeaux's career choice, and the Hall of Fame jockey became a lifetime vision for his son, who is losing his sight, when he made the decision to ease his failed mount, Big Brown, in the Belmont Stakes as the touted horse fell short of a Triple Crown title.

Nine-year-old Jacob glowed in the stands, waiting for pop to bring home a Triple Crown winner. He couldn't see well, for, born deaf as well, he suffers from the genetic disorder Usher syndrome, which is slowly robbing him of his sight.

Jacob's dad wanted to give his son a vision he could hold forever, even after his son's failing sight finally slips away altogether.

Easing up his mount had to be, in Desormeaux's career field, about the toughest blow he's had to take. Desormeaux was a dead cert on Big Brown to win the twelfth ever Thoroughbred Triple Crown. The beginning of the race was riddled with difficulty for the jockey and his favored mount. The experienced Desormeaux patiently piloted the unusually rank Big Brown through that and found a good spot from which to still launch a winning drive.

But Big Brown had nothing when asked to surge. Within seconds, Desormeaux made the huge choice to "take care of my horse" by easing him in the failed effort, rather than pushing him unconscionably to the brink of injury.

Celebrate Kent Desormeaux. He gave his son that vision, the vision of a man doing the right thing in the midst of heart-rending career circumstances.

Pans for those fans who booed Big Brown when he came home last. You all missed the whole bleeping point!

Posted by BarbaraAnne Helberg

Push button horses? Guess we can put that to rest now. It was said of Smarty Jones and of Big Brown, "He'll do anything we want him to." Uh-huh. Except rate in the Belmont Stakes. We loved Smarty. We loved Big Brown. But neither rated in the Belmont.

There was nothing physically amiss with Big Brown on Belmont day when he went to the post to make good on Dutrow's guarantee of a Triple Crown title. His pre-race demeanor was excellent. He had been frisky earlier in the day, and had shown progressive eagerness to return to the races.

But he broke from the No.1 gate slipping, veering right, got steered back to the rail temporarily, then about when he wanted to gear up a bit, the pacesetters backed up a tad, and there was Big Brown behind them, rail to the left, horses to the right, no where to go, shaking his head at the whole show.

Kent Desormeaux skillfully got him out of there, but by the time he accomplished that, Big Brown was mentally out of it. He'd already been thwarted from his rhythm. He showed the world who Big Brown is -- his own...well, horse.

Back at the barn, he walked regally, as though he had just won it all, and I think he did. He even purposefully posed for the camera with head high and ears pricked. Dutrow could only stare at him, his own back to the cameras, stunned, unable to speak to the media.

This wouldn't be the first time we've seen a horse run the race he wanted to run.

Posted by BarbaraAnne Helberg

Recently, I read a letter-to-the editor entry commenting on the fact that Eight Belles, who tragically broke down in the Kentucky Derby and was immediately euthanized, should not be forgotten. The letter was critical of a Thoroughbred racing story (which I also had read) because the story's closing remarks indicated a Triple Crown championship by Big Brown, something the industry craves even more now than it has over the last 30 years, would help erase the memory of the breakdown and would help elevate the sport of horse racing.

I agree wholeheartedly with the letter writer. The story's ending paragraph was hugely off the mark, even tasteless, in the wake of a horrific accident. There was nothing proven wrong with the filly before the Kentucky Derby took place. It was a gut-wrenching, inexplicable happening for all involved, and for the average horse racing fan.

Would a Big Brown Triple Crown be exciting and a shot in the arm for the Thoroughbred game? Absolutely! Should it erase the memory of Eight Belles? Unequivically, no! It's the memory of her, and that of Barbaro, and others, burning brightly, that drives the quest for cures and corrections of care and safety for these equine athletes.

Would a Big Brown Triple Crown elevate the sport past something painful and forgettable? I don't see how. And it shouldn't. We shouldn't aim to elevate past a tragedy. We should aim to address its causes and cures as much as possible. In any circumstance, there is room for improvement.

Posted by BarbaraAnne Helberg

In the Kentucky Derby, Big Brown won me over. Okay, I goofed not picking you, Brown. You're good. Better than good. How good are you?

In the Preakness Stakes, Brown was really good. Fabulous! He bowled me over with his discipline. How many Thoroughbreds do you see who can come back to their jockey when asked, once, even twice, or three times in a race, and still be willing to go all out to the wire when asked to do that?

Even Big Brown's jockey, now three-time Derby winner Kent Desormeaux, can't express his amazement at BB's intelligence and his willing ability to respond correctly to signals. Desormeaux had to brake BB almost back to the gate to avoid using him up too soon in the Preakness. No horse has enough spirit and moxy left to chase down leaders after being called back that hard. Big Brown does.

Champion Smarty Jones lost his Triple Crown because he and his jockey fought each other for control in the early stages of the Belmont.

No fighting with Big Brown. He quickly re-adjusts to his jockey's wishes, then still runs like a loose greyhound down the stretch to the wire. And he's got energy left over!

"We've got horse left (for the Belmont)," trainer Richard Dutrow, Jr. claimed after the Preakness. And how! Win, BB, win at Belmont! Lasso that Triple Crown title!

Posted by BarbaraAnne Helberg

To not vote for Curlin for 2007 Horse of the Year based on undesireable things his trainer, owner, or breeder might have done is way off the mark! It was't Asmussen, or Jackson running around those tracks thrashing the competition. It was Curlin.

What did Curlin do in 2007?

He became a champion before our eyes, maturing with each experience, learning how to win. After showing his immaturity, but plenty of guts, in the Kentucky Derby and placing third, he quick-studied his way to a narrow victory over 2006 Juvenile Champion, Street Sense, in the Preakness Stakes. In the Belmont Stakes, he came to full bloom, rated, spurted, drove home hard with determination aforethought to win out, but was nosed from the victory by the marvelous A.P. Indy filly, Rags to Riches.

Curlin did it the hard way. With no two-year-old experience, he earned those three placings in the Triple Crown series, becoming one of few who have achieved the feat of staying on the board in all three classics. And he didn't stop learning there.

Asserting himself anew, he won in the Jockey Club Gold Cup and the Breeders' Cup Classic.

What was not to vote for? You didn't like his trainer's suspension problems? You didn't favor his owners' fighting over him? There are categories in which to vote against those things. Not Best trainer. Not Best owner/breeder.

Curlin ran his heart out after quickly learning how to win.

He earned 2007 HOY. No question.