Big Brown left alone after stunning loss

NEW YORK – The morning after the Belmont Stakes, Big Brown stopped to pose for photographers as if he had won the Triple Crown. Everyone except the horse knew otherwise.

Trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. was a no-show, leaving questions and few answers about what happened to Big Brown in Saturday’s 1 1/2 -mile Belmont. The Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner was eased up by jockey Kent Desormeaux in the stretch, ending up last, beaten by eight other horses.

The bay colt faced the cameras alone Sunday, except for exercise rider Michelle Nevin – and she wasn’t talking.

Outwardly, Big Brown appeared no worse for wear. He got his morning bath outside Barn 2, playfully nipping at a leather lead held by Nevin. Then she led him in circles around the inside of the barn, with Big Brown walking perfectly on his patched left front hoof.

Co-owner Michael Iavarone said Big Brown had a thorough examination after the race and again Sunday morning.

“There’s nothing physically that’s shown up,” he said, speaking by cell phone from his daughter’s soccer game on Long Island. “I’m as confused as anybody. The only thing we’re resorting to right now is the track might have been too deep for him and he didn’t like it out there.”

Iavarone said Big Brown’s problem feet, other than a loose left hind shoe, were not an issue.

“We’re perplexed,” he said. “Nobody can figure this one out.”

Without any obvious answers, it might take blood work and diagnostic testing, including X-rays, to figure out Big Brown’s poor performance.

Dutrow was criticized after acknowledging he used an anabolic steroid on Big Brown, then said last week that the horse hadn’t had a dose of Winstrol since April. It’s known to increase appetite and promote weight gain and healing. The drug is legal in the three states where the Triple Crown races are run.

“I doubt if that comes up to be the answer,” Larry Bramlage, the on-call veterinarian, said after the race. “It’s not that kind of situation where it’s going to be a stimulant for him. The anabolic steroid keeps him eating and keeps him happy and keeps him aggressive, all of which he showed all week long.”

Big Brown was running on a quarter crack in his left front hoof that wasn’t patched until Friday, but Dutrow insisted all last week that it was a “non-issue.”

Nevertheless, it cost the colt three days of training between the Preakness and the Belmont. Big Brown wasn’t trained very hard leading up to the longest and toughest of the three classics, either.

Desormeaux said afterward that Big Brown “was in no way, shape or form lame or sore.”

Iavarone said that unless something shows up, Big Brown will maintain his training schedule and be pointed toward the Travers Stakes in August at Saratoga.