or more to the point, his trainer, Rick Dutrow, Jr. This guy ran his mouth non-stop to the press for the weeks leading up to the Belmont, guaranteeing victory and bad-mouthing his opponents. His horse tanks in the race and he vanishes for days, clearly unwilling to face the music that he himself wrote. Now he comes out from under a stone and blames the jockey. I'm not a big horse racing fan. My wife is an accomplished equestrian and has always told me that horses, while sometimes magnificent, are among the dumbest and least predictable members of the animal kingdom. As such, I've always found it difficult to plunk down hard earned cash on such a beast. Big Brown apparently just didn't feel like partaking in the Belmont. His trainer, an obvious pant-load, stiffs both the press and his rider. This trainer could have trouble finding work going forward. :lol:
I think that the Barbaro saga and the Eight Bells break down in this years Derby have had an effect on the sport. I heard the jock say that Big Brown was the best horse he'd ever been on. If he felt that the horse just didn't have it and pulled up in case the horse was hurting then how can you criticize him? On the other hand there was so much money riding on Big Brown that the temptation to get to the jockey and have him throw the race might have been pretty irresistable. We may never know what happened.