Da' Tara ends Big Brown's bid for Triple Crown
Updated Sat. Jun. 7 2008 7:20 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
In a stunning upset, Da' Tara won the Belmont Stakes on Saturday and ended the heavily-favoured Big Brown's bid for the Triple Crown.
Da' Tara, who was given only 38-1 odds of winning, crossed the finish line roughly four lengths ahead of the second-place finisher Denis of Cork.
Big Brown was favoured to capture the elusive Triple Crown title after back-to-back wins at the Kentucky Derby in Louisville and at Preakness in Baltimore.
But the horse shocked the crowd of 120,000 gathered at Belmont Park by finishing dead last. His jockey, Kent Desormeaux, told reporters after the race he thought his horse stumbled soon after leaving the gates.
"I had no horse," Desormeaux said.
After the first half mile, Big Brown was in third place and continuing to fall further and further back as the race progressed.
Big Brown would have been the first horse in 30 years to win the Triple Crown. Only 11 other horses have accomplished the feat.
His championship fate seemed sealed when his fiercest opponent, Casino Drive, was pulled from the race because of a bruised hoof early on Saturday.
But some worried Big Brown's own injury -- a crack in his front left hoof -- would slow him down.
Veterinarian and hoof specialist Ian McKinlay applied an acrylic and fibreglass patch to the broken area Friday.
Glen Crouter, of the Woodbine Entertainment Group, compared the injury to a human toe nail cracked right down to its base. He watched Big Brown practice in N.Y. following the procedure.
"They have wired it shut and then put a liquid cast on it," Crouter told CTV Newsnet on the line from Belmont Saturday.
"There is no question it would be painful," he said.
Desormeaux said the injury was not life-threatening or career-ending, but merely an "annoyance."
The last horse win the Triple Crown was Affirmed in 1978.
Despite Big Brown's impressive track record, he is a relative rookie, having competed in only five major races over the past year and a half.
In that time his net worth climbed from about US$60,000 to US$50 million.
Sadly, Crouter said, this might have been the last chance for fans to see Big Brown in action.
"He is just far too valuable in the breeding shed," said Crouter.
Big Brown is likely to retire to Three Chimneys, a 2,000-acre farm in Kentucky.
Breeding season begins in mid-February and runs through early summer.
With files from The Associated Press