BB’s expression here gives us a good idea of what he thinks of his owners…
I’m still trying to figure out how any of the jockeys could see a target on Big Brown’s back… if he was so far behind them! :winkgrin:
I apologize if cited already, but it is funny to read the following when you read the DRF article from today cited by Glimmer. Not quite on the same page, are we??
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/more/06/09/desormeaux.dp/index.html
HAHA!! Omg that is priceless.
Coral - you are right about the Lasix. I was thinking exactly the same thing today. Of all the times to choose not to give it. :no:
[QUOTE=WhiteCamry;3275819]
Dunno if anyone else has noticed, but Da’Tara is the first Godolphin to win a TC race since War Admiral. In fact, he’s descended from Man o’War through War Relic.[/QUOTE]
War Relic? Looking at pedigreequery I’m getting War Admiral via Wavy Navy and Hoist the Flag. Unless I’m not looking in the right place. And Tiznow does have Northern Dancer twice over, but it is pretty far back compared to some.
[QUOTE=danceronice;3277152]
War Relic? Looking at pedigreequery I’m getting War Admiral via Wavy Navy and Hoist the Flag. Unless I’m not looking in the right place. And Tiznow does have Northern Dancer twice over, but it is pretty far back compared to some.
http://www.pedigreequery.com/da+tara[/QUOTE]
You have to follow Cees Tizzy back- click on In Reality and you’ll see War Relic in there twice.
As for Kent- he should be questioned by the stewards. His ride was terrible, and for him to pull up without persevering is against racing rules. His quote provides all the information a steward would need to suspend him-
“Desormeaux said Monday that his plan was go to the lead, but that Big Brown slipped coming out of the gate and that he was pinched back a length. He said that he pulled Big Brown up because he wasn’t going to finish anywhere but last.”
So all jockeys should just stop riding as soon as they realize they won’t finish in the money?? Pathetic.
Ah, I see! War Admiral and War Relic are not bad things to have in a pedigree…
Ah the excuses … astounding!
NY Newsday June 10, 2008 “Blame game continues for Big Brown’s connections”
excerpt
In some ways, that was to be expected from this pair, who did everything they could to shine the spotlight upon themselves until they realized its glare did nothing but expose their flaws. They were bad winners, so it should come as no surprise that they are bad losers, too.
But by yesterday afternoon, I had heard it all when jockey Kent Desormeaux, a dead-honest jock on the track and a straight shooter off it, tried to blame Big Brown’s big bust on the loss of water pressure at steamy Belmont Park.
“The water failed at Belmont, didn’t it?” he said to me when I reached him by cell phone yesterday afternoon. "Well, that was it. The track dried out and they couldn’t get any water to it. He couldn’t handle the track. You laymen don’t understand this but a horse with a turn of foot like he has is useless on a soft track. He was just spinning his wheels.
“He was too explosive for that track.”
Funny, to the eyes of this layman, it sure didn’t look that way. Instead, it looked like a good horse - not a great horse, as has been written far too many times over the past five weeks - had a bad day. And what it sounded like was a concocted excuse, one floated first by Iavarone on Sunday morning and amplified yesterday by a jockey who might well be looking for a new ride when and if Big Brown returns to the racetrack.
As an aside, there have been others there that complained about the restrooms …
But using the racetrack as an excuse for Big Brown’s spectacular failure ignores two key points. The first is that track officials insist the track was watered, as usual, between races, by four trucks, carrying 18,000 gallons, that had been filled before the crisis began, the crisis that caused the track bathrooms to be shut down.
And as track superintendent John Passero told the Washington Post, “If we have a choice - dirty toilets or a fast track - we’ll take the fast track.”
In what will come as good news to PETA, humans may have been forced to use the stairwells but the horses had as much water as they needed.
In summary from that article:
[b]By all accounts, Big Brown is healthy, wealthy and wise, and was going into the race. He just got beat, pure and simple, fair and square. A good horse, for sure, but not good enough.
That’s the plain truth.[/b]
OTOH, the Habs have since won in:
- '79 (Spectacular Bid - Spectacular Bid - Coastal)
- '86 (Ferdinand - Snow Chief - Danzig Connection)
- '93 (Sea Hero - Prairie Bayou - Colonial Affair)
Totally fabulous photo of Da’ Tara (and it’s not even mine) 
http://equinephotographers.org/4um/viewtopic.php?p=92463#92463
Note: It is for viewing only, not copying, printing, using for any purpose without permission from Sarah K Andrew.
oh wow, what a fantastic photo.
That might be the most adorable jockey ever… Best face since Calvin Borel won the Derby… heh
[QUOTE=Rainbow Farm Unltd.;3278259]
Totally fabulous photo of Da’ Tara (and it’s not even mine)
http://equinephotographers.org/4um/viewtopic.php?p=92463#92463
Note: It is for viewing only, not copying, printing, using for any purpose without permission from Sarah K Andrew.[/QUOTE]
Thank you very much! He has such a contagious smile
More photos here… http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockandracehorses
Andy Beyer’s perspective on the BB’s flop: DRF June 11, 2008 “A theory on Big Brown’s bust”
Bottom line he too is left with no answers at all but he discounts other theories …
The ride itself
Dutrow blamed jockey Kent Desormeaux’s ride, and his criticism was well founded. Desormeaux’s tactics were absurd, considering the circumstances of the race. …
Though it violated every precept of Race Riding 101, Desormeaux’s strategy was understandable. Big Brown had won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness by securing a position on the outside and stalking the leaders. (Dutrow himself preferred such tactics.)
The removal of Winstrol
There is no certainty that Dutrow was telling the truth, but if he was, Winstrol was not the key to the colt’s loss. A top veterinarian told me that taking a horse off steroids might have gradual effects, ones that a trainer would notice, but they would not account for a sudden and drastic reversal in a horse’s form.
The track itself
Co-owner Michael Iavarone offered the theory that the racing strip at Belmont might have been to blame, that it became too dry in the high heat and Big Brown didn’t like the surface. That’s the hoariest excuse in the big book of racing excuses, and it is hard to believe that the best 3-year-old in America couldn’t handle conditions with which most of the other 115 horses on the card were able to cope.
The lack of training
But on Saturday the light regimen may have backfired. Perhaps Big Brown hadn’t done enough to be in top shape to run 1 1/2 miles. If he wasn’t in optimal condition, the hot weather and the rough trip might have affected more than they normally would have.
Dutrow won’t be caught off guard like that next time - be it Jersey or Saratoga: [Rick will] resume the colt’s monthly treatments of Winstrol.
War Admiral or War Reli
[QUOTE=danceronice;3277152]
War Relic? Looking at pedigreequery I’m getting War Admiral via Wavy Navy and Hoist the Flag. Unless I’m not looking in the right place. And Tiznow does have Northern Dancer twice over, but it is pretty far back compared to some.
http://www.pedigreequery.com/da+tara[/QUOTE]
well I’m relying on you to tell us which.
War Relic, my WB Cloudy direct descendant.
War Admiral, my OTTB mare Callie (Kick and Howl) direct descendant.
either one is fine with me
I like the water pressure theory myself. Maybe a guy on a grassy knoll too?
Oh, maybe that really was not BB? It was a clone substituted by aliens?
God, I just get beat when I lose.
It all goes back to Kent’s original comment right after the race - “I had no horse.” Not surprising he didn’t - since Dutrow decided, on a day with sudden extreme heat & humidity, and on the longest race of his career, to give Lasix to BB who had historically shown to hate very hot weather…
Not second guessing him but seems to not make good sense?
Didn’t they skip the E-lytes too? Well, won’t be doing that again.
I kind of come down with DWL and his remarks on the missed training and abbreviated conditioning schedual combined with the hot weather and Belmont’s well known sandy surface.
Too bad certain people aren’t horseman enough to just congratulate the winner and his conditioning program and STF up with the blame game.
[QUOTE=Iride;3281321]
… since Dutrow decided, on a day with sudden extreme heat & humidity, and on the longest race of his career, to give Lasix to BB who had historically shown to hate very hot weather[/QUOTE]
Just a red herring I’m afraid there. Big Brown always run on Lasix.
Also running on Lasix in the Belmont Stakes was EVERYONE but the maiden: Guadalcana.
Further EVERY horse in the 6th race (True North Handicap), 7th race (Just a Game Stakes), 8th race (Acorn Stakes), 9th race (Wood Stephens Stakes), 10th race (Woodford Reseve Manhattan Hdcp), 12th race did, and 13th race all had Lasix in their system. None collapsed of heat exhaustion and no one can tell me it was any less hot/humid when they raced as well.
Like the complaint about the track being too dry, it just doesn’t (excuse the pun) hold water when everyone else managed just fine.
You have a point Glim.
Personally I hope we all (myself included) can move on from the need to speculate, hard as it is to stop.
[QUOTE=Glimmerglass;3281284]
Andy Beyer’s perspective on the BB’s flop: DRF June 11, 2008 “A theory on Big Brown’s bust”[/QUOTE]
A good summary. I think there is really no one thing to blame here, it was a combination of things that he couldn’t overcome. That said, I agree with what others have said in this and other threads: a truly “great” horse can overcome everything. This was just too much adversity for a “good” horse to beat. It’s a shame but it’s time to move on. Pointing fingers after the fact doesn’t solve anything and just makes everyone doing it look like idiot. You’ve got a good horse that’s still sound, give his hoof some fixy time and get back into some real training and try again.
