Rick Dutrow Jr...Truly Pathetic.

As someone who has had a family involved in Standardbred Racing (aka Harness Racing) all of my life, the decision by Rick Dutrow Jr. to throw his jockey under the bus is a pathetic case in finger pointing.  This is an example of an overblown ego of a trainer who simply cant admit that his horse faltered badly.  Here is why it was not the Jockey's fault for the upset.

1) After the Preakness win, Big Brown was discovered to have a quarter crack.  This is fairly common in all racing horses and if treated properly and thoroughly, it can be fixed completely.  Due to this injury, and the cautiousness of the TRAINER, Big Brown did virtually no training before the Belmont.  For nearly a month, Big Brown was dormant.  The most action he received was by the media who labeled him the next TC winner.   Why is this important?

2) With nearly a full month of little or no work, Big Brown entered the Belmont far from 100%  Some said he'd be "fresh" which is completely wrong.  That lack of training hurt BB very much and left him particularly succeptible to "tieing up" later in the race.  A race I might add, that was a mile and a half, something BB was not prepared for.  The longer race left BB in danger of faltering late.  Something that clearly happened before Kent D dropped him back out of the race. 

3) Big Brown, a fine race horse, was erroneously labeled a colossus who was considered unbeatable by most going into the Belmont, this was false.  Big Brown was a very good horse in a below average year for 3 year olds, that is the bottom line.  He was not a superhorse, look at his times in comparison to previous winners.  BB was to some extent, benefitted by a weak year and that is hard to debate. 

4) Lastly,  Dutrow Jr. in my opinion was arrogant and felt that he could wing it with Big Brown and still accomplish the goal of winning the TC.  If he was looking for somebody to blame, he should have been looking to himself when pointing the finger.  He showed a complete lack of class and professionalism in blaming his jockey and if you watch the race, you can see quite clearly the horse got a PERFECT trip.  He sat third and had to do very little work to get there or during the remainder of the trip.  His horse was tired and that is the bottom line.  When Kent D went to make his move, his horse had nothing in the tank. 

Might want to ask the trainer about that...

Wow, someone who has a clue about horses, it can't be!  Nice to see someone thinking instead of claiming that steroids, which have no impact on speed and little if any positive impact on endurance had anything to do with Big Brown's failure. 

Did anyone actually watch this race? Can we all accept that the best of the best were in this race? If so, I would think most people that understand horse racing can also accept that it would be nearly impossible for any horse to win taking the trip Big Brown took. Most people only look at the side angle view with Big Brown running 3rd most of the way thinking he was 3 wide, which is still insane for a mile and a half, however, if you actually look at the over head footage, it was more like Big Brown was running 6 or 7 wide at times. No way there is any horse left by the time Kent asked him to move. A better trip in a better position and I believe Big Brown wins.

Maybe I am way off but it doesn't seem like a horse can have have much of a chance running 6 wide for a mile and a half.