Big Brown Didn't

have it today, and Kent Desormeaux did the right thing in easing him up in the race. It doesn't appear he was injured on the outside, and he wasn't lame. He will get a thorough examination to see if there is internal bleeding.

He finished last in the race, the first Triple Crown hopeful to do so.

I personally didn't think he should have run in the race given the fact he had a quarter crack. As I mentioned in an earlier post, a generation ago, the great Buckpasser wasn't entered in any of the Triple Crown races because he suffered from a quarter crack.

The track vet said he was not injured at all, as least as far as it is known. Either he bled internally, or he was simply psyched out after having some problems in the race.

Kent Desormeaux said he "had no horse." Big Brown basically quit, so Kent eased him up when he found out the horse wasn't going to make his run.

It's also possible Big Brown simply didn't like the track:

Speaking on the television broadcast, Desormeaux said, "The racetrack just didn’t hold him up. He slipped. I got him outside early and he cantered. He wanted to jump up in the bridle but I could tell I had no horse. I took care of him."

Da' Tara, a longshot trained by Nick Zito, won. The horse paid $79.00. Denis of Cork finished second, while Anak Nakal, also trained by Zito, dead-heated with Ready's Echo for third.

The video of the race is here. When it comes up on YouTube I'll post it on the blog.

You can tell about three-quarters into the race Big Brown wasn't making his move at all. He was stuck in third, and then Desormeaux started pulling him back. He ran out of gas. It was plainly visible in the race.

Trainer Rick Dutrow:

"The horse is not injured. We will scope the horse. I was looking for a problem and so far I don’t see a problem. I am looking for something to be wrong and I don’t see it. When they turned for home I knew something wasn’t right.

"If we feel he is 100%, we will get him back in training and move on. This is a very disappointing race and right now it looks like he will have a good life even if he never races again. When Kent starting pulling him up I thought something was wrong. He’s in good shape and we’re very proud of him. Something has got to be wrong when he puts in a race like this. I just don’t know what happened."