NEW YORK -- In horse racing -- and life in general, for that matter -- there is rarely a foregone conclusion.
That was proved once again when, despite trainer Rick Dutrow Jr.'s confident proclamations, Big Brown not only lost his bid to become horse racing's first Triple Crown winner in 30 years, he finished last in Saturday's Belmont Stakes after being pulled up by jockey Kent Desormeaux coming around the far turn.
After two thorough post-race examinations, the cause of Big Brown's poor performance remains a mystery.
"He's sound, he's clean," Mike Iavarone, the co-president of Big Brown's majority owner, IEAH Stables, said Sunday.
"Scoped clean. Feet ice-cold. Quarter-crack not an issue," he added. "We went over him good last night and again this morning, and there's nothing that shows up."
For now, all that's known for sure is Big Brown ran out of gas and Desormeaux chose not to force the issue and risk injury to this valuable animal.
The loss leaves many in the sport wondering just what might have been had Big Brown won.
Iavarone said tentative plans call for Big Brown to use the Grade II $500,000 Jim Dandy on July 27 at Saratoga as a prep for the Grade I $1-million Travers on Aug. 23 at Saratoga.
"Unless something shows up in the next couple of days, we're looking to maintain his training schedule," Iavarone said. "The only thing we're resorting to right now is the track might have been too deep for him, and he didn't like it.
Iavarone and Dutrow told The Times last week that they were definitely planning to run the horse in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita Oct. 25.
But Big Brown won't run in any of those races as a Triple Crown winner, which means his marquee value has dropped considerably.
Oh, but what could have been -- undefeated Triple Crown winner Big Brown taking on 2007 horse of the year Curlin. Throw in highly touted but untested Casino Drive, who was scratched from the Belmont the morning of the race because of a hoof injury, and you would have had one of the biggest races imaginable.
It would certainly have been the highlight of the 14-race Breeders' Cup that will be held during the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita Oct. 24-25. The event has become so big it will be televised on three networks, ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, and there will be nine hours of coverage over the two days.
As for Saturday's Belmont, ABC's race coverage, which ran from 2:30-4 p.m., got a national metered-market overnight rating of 10.5.
