Big Brown trainer pins blame on jockey

In a jaw dropper, the trainer of Belmont Stakes losing horse Big Brown is putting all of the blame on the horse's jockey

The players in this drama are trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. and jockey Kent Desormeaux.


Big Brown handily won the first two legs of horseracing's Triple Crown, the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.  He was heavily favored to win the Belmont last Saturday but labored as he came around the final turn.  Jockey Kent Desormeaux  pulled the horse up before the finish, he said, to prevent injury.

The end result?  Big Brown finished dead last and a lot of betting folk lost money.

"I was done.  I had no horse,” Desormeaux said.

After the race, everyone was stunned and wanted to know if the horse was hurt.

Co-owner Michael Iavarone said Big Brown had a thorough examination after the race and again Sunday morning. Nothing amiss.

Today, trainer Dutrow said, "I don't want to hurt anyone, especially Kent. But I still don't understand what happened. I don't see the horse with a problem, so I have to direct my attention toward the ride. That's all I can come up with."

As PEP here at Now Public can attest: Dutrow is known to be a snake and has been accused in the past of doping his horses.

Jockey Desormeaux still insists he did the right thing to prevent injury to the horse based upon the rider's sense of the horse's condition and performance.

"I had no horse. He was empty," Desormeaux said after the race.

Dutrow insisted Tuesday he had found nothing wrong with Big Brown.

"Maybe next week if something starts going wrong with the horse, then I'll understand everything," he said.

Hmmmmmm.......

The Associated Press reported that Dutrow said, "As long as the horse stays the way that I see him right now, then things are just going to keep building up for me to know that it was the ride that did him in."

He said he hadn't spoken to Desormeaux, but "if he calls me I'll talk to him, sure."

If Big Brown is healthy, the plan is for him to run next in the Travers Stakes on Aug. 23 at Saratoga.

Dutrow had no regrets about his bombastic proclamation that Big Brown clinching the Triple Crown was a "foregone conclusion."

"It's not like I'm going to go and cry in the corner," he said as he prepared for several of his horses to run Wednesday at Aqueduct. "I've got plenty to do here."