WHEN Big Brown emerged unscathed from his inexplicable fiasco in the Belmont Stakes, the post-mortem focus suddenly swung hard and sharp on the equally inexplicable ride from jockey Kent Desormeaux.
Along the Belmont backstretch yesterday, Kent was the fall guy. Not without some reason.
One of the top trainers in the business said: “Desormeaux screwed up. He should have let him run, just as he did in the Florida Derby, instead of fighting him.
“He should never have eased the horse, either. Did you see the stretch run? Big Brown was still fighting for his head. I think Desormeaux panicked.”
Another trainer said: “Sometimes, when you turn a horse off, as Kent did early in the race, you can’t turn ’em back on again.”
Yet another, severely critical of the ride, said: “Kent is one of the best, most aggressive jockeys in the business, but sometimes you have to wonder.”
Chris McCarron, one of the best jockeys ever to ride in America, said: “Kent had a lot of trouble going into the first turn, that’s for sure. The trouble is that Big Brown has never broken well. He is his own worst enemy coming out of the gate.
“All the jockeys in the Belmont knew that. So when he scrambled out of there again Saturday, they dropped over on him right away and got him in a box.”
They sure did. And that’s when all the trouble began. Big Brown wanted his head, but Desormeaux put a double lock on him. With the horse swinging his head, to and fro, anxious to go on, Desormeaux yanked him outside, slamming hard into Anak Nakal, then, incredibly, Desormeaux took him so wide it’s a wonder they didn’t send out a search party for him.
The cops should have ticketed him for reckless driving.
But nothing tells the story of Big Brown’s horrendous trip and the jockey’s foul-up more than the independent chart of the race. It reads, “Big Brown steadied . . . steadied sharply . . . steadied . . . taken to the outside bumping Anak Nakal . . . swung seven wide into the backstretch, continuing wide for seven furlongs…etc.”
And most of that happened in the first couple furlongs. Desormeaux’s tactics were eerily reminiscent of the bewildering ride Garrett Gomez gave Hard Spun in last year’s Belmont.
When something goes wrong in a race, it is fashionable to blame the jockey.
Desormeaux defended his ride.
“At the five-eighths pole, I knew I was done,” he said. “I had no horse. There was some crowding going into the first turn but when I got to the outside, I said that’s it, the race is over. I got it. Unfortunately, there are no popped tires. He just ran out of gas.”
Desormeaux, thinking something might be wrong, eased Big Brown. He knew he had a $50 million property under him and he was taking no chances. That was fine for the horse and the owners. He added, “I was numb, lost.”
So were an army of horseplayers. Last time I looked at the tote board, they had invested more than $8 million on Big Brown to win alone, not to mention place, show, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, pick six pools.
The public may have lost as much as $15 million on Big Brown’s flop. You would think the stewards, or maybe NYRA or maybe the State Racing and Wagering Board, which regulates racing, would have had some interest in finding out what happened and passed it on to the public.
Not a chance. By last night, not one official in charge had anything to say about Big Brown’s dismal performance. The public be damned.
The only comment came from veterinarian Larry Bramlage. He was asked whether the decision to withdraw Big Brown’s steroid treatment and vitamins could have affected him.
Bramlage replied, “I doubt it. The anabolic steroids keep him eating and keeps him aggressive, all of which he showed all week long, so I kind of doubt it.”
It is trainer Nick Zito’s fortune and misfortune to win two of the biggest upsets in Belmont history against hot favorites, leaving him and his jockey Alan Garcia marooned while all the attention is given to the losers.
Still, Zito was in great shape and good humor yesterday. His 38-1 winner Da’ Tara justified his philosophy.
“I believe the Belmont is a pedigree race,” Zito said. “I’ve had two winners and six seconds in the race and all of them had mile and a half pedigrees.
“I was jumping up and down, and up and down, but I knew he had the pedigree and I knew he would stay the trip.”
If Big Brown was UPS, Da’ Tara was FedExpress.