Brown-out at Belmont


The sport of horse racing seemed to be moving along at full gallop before Saturday afternoon, as if somebody had applied a strong whip hand to spur it back into public consciousness.

I tuned in to watch the Belmont, something I rarely feel compelled to do, because of the promise that history might be made. During the buildup to a race that would last no more than a couple minutes, we were led to believe that an event of seismic proportions would unfold if Big Brown became the first horse to capture the Triple Crown in 30 years. As if the weight of the troubled racing industry would be carried comfortably on Big Brown's four hoofs.

Big Brown's brash trainer, Rick Dutrow, guaranteed a Triple Crown.

So, naturally, it didn’t happen.

In fact, Big Brown's Triple Crown hopes crashed in slow, majestic fashion.

The magnificent beast that dusted the Kentucky Derby field and made the Preakness field look slower than wooden carousel ponies crumbled, either from the weight of expectations or from the fatigue of being pushed too hard for too long.

It's rare when a strong victory by a 38-to-1 shot like Da'Tara gets overshadowed by the underperformance of another horse, but Big Brown slow canter down the stretch raised questions about how it had achieved its impressive results at Churchill Downs and at the Preakness.

It became the first Triple Crown hopeful to finish dead last, a rather ignominous footnote to its foiled attempt at history.

‘‘I had no horse,’’ jockey Kent Desormeaux said of finding Big Brown unresponsive on the final turn.

It's possible he could have found one if he had a hypodermic needle handy.

On Friday, Dutrow told the media that he would not inject Big Brown with a shot of the anabolic steroid Winstrol before the Belmont. He admitted that he had given Big Brown a shot of the performance enhancer before the Kentucky Derby, but claimed he had not done so since. Dutrow said it was customary for him to give Big Brown and his other horses shots of Winstrol on the 15th of each month, but that he did not know what impact it had on their performances.

I'm no veterinarian, but it seems like it would enable them to run the way Big Brown did at the Kentucky Derby. Winstrol builds muscle mass, but it can also promote weight gain and recovery from injury. Although it's banned from being used in 10 states, it's fair game in the those hosting Triple Crown events.

After Saturday, it seems the 3-year-old colt's previous performances are as suspect as some of the feats of Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire or Marion Jones.