June 9, 2008
WHEN Big Brown emerged unscathed from his inexplicable fiasco in the Belmont Stakes, the post-mortem focus suddenly swung hard and sharp on the equally inexplicable ride from jockey Kent Desormeaux.
Along the Belmont backstretch yesterday, Kent was the fall guy. Not without some reason.
One of the top trainers in the business said: "Desormeaux screwed up. He should have let him run, just as he did in the Florida Derby, instead of fighting him.
"He should never have eased the horse, either. Did you see the stretch run? Big Brown was still fighting for his head. I think Desormeaux panicked."
Another trainer said: "Sometimes, when you turn a horse off, as Kent did early in the race, you can't turn 'em back on again."
Yet another, severely critical of the ride, said: "Kent is one of the best, most aggressive jockeys in the business, but sometimes you have to wonder."
Chris McCarron, one of the best jockeys ever to ride in America, said: "Kent had a lot of trouble going into the first turn, that's for sure. The trouble is that Big Brown has never broken well. He is his own worst enemy coming out of the gate.
"All the jockeys in the Belmont knew that. So when he scrambled out of there again Saturday, they dropped over on him right away and got him in a box."
They sure did. And that's when all the trouble began. Big Brown wanted his head, but Desormeaux put a double lock on him. With the horse swinging his head, to and fro, anxious to go on, Desormeaux yanked him outside, slamming hard into Anak Nakal, then, incredibly, Desormeaux took him so wide it's a wonder they didn't send out a search party for him.
The cops should have ticketed him for reckless driving.
But nothing tells the story of Big Brown's horrendous trip and the jockey's foul-up more than the independent chart of the race. It reads, "Big Brown steadied . . . steadied sharply . . . steadied . . . taken to the outside bumping Anak Nakal . . . swung seven wide into the backstretch, continuing wide for seven furlongs...etc."
And most of that happened in the first couple furlongs. Desormeaux's tactics were eerily reminiscent of the bewildering ride Garrett Gomez gave Hard Spun in last year's Belmont.
