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ELMONT, N.Y. — Belmont Park, the haunted house of racing, delivered again here Saturday. Next time a horse is trying for a Triple Crown, they should have the ticket-takers dress up as ghosts and goblins.
Turns out, Big Brown could be a big dud. Who knew?
Maybe he was hurt. Maybe he was overhyped. Maybe we’ll never know.
This time, this horse was supposed to be bigger than all of it. Too fast to fail. Too good to be affected by three weeks of hero worship and hoopla that precedes an attempt at this historic achievement. Too above it all to even worry, as the braggadocio of his trainer, Rick Dutrow Jr., demonstrated daily.
Turns out, Team Big Brown just talked the talk but didn’t walk the walk.
One minute, racing had a star. The next, somewhere in the final turn of the $1-million Belmont Stakes, it had Roberto Duran. As more than 100,000 in the park, and millions more watching on TV, waited for that classic Big Brown acceleration, Big Brown said “No mas.”
Jockey Kent Desormeaux said he saw no problems before the race and sensed no difference during it with the runaway Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner.
But when Nick Zito’s Da’Tara, who went wire to wire on the rail in this one after losing by 23 1/2 lengths to Big Brown in the Florida Derby, was separating a bit from Desormeaux with still more than half a mile to go, Desormeaux said it was time to take action.
“I said, OK, let’s do it, let’s engage,’ ” he said. “But I had nothing. I had no horse.”
Eventually, Desormeaux just pulled him up and Big Brown got his post-race galloping-out during the race. He crossed the finish line at the speed of a fast cow. Desormeaux was pulling hard, hoping to minimize whatever was wrong with Big Brown.

latimes.com