With that my Father called my Grandfather who was due for dinner later that day and they spent the rest of the morning into the afternoon making a wooden rocking horse in my Grandfather's basement. The 'horse' was in place by bedtime that Christmas and never again did my parents 'assume' my expectations in life would be filled by their insight.
Kindly note, "Big Brown's big ears" vs. the ears of the number 6 horse and winner, Da’ Tara. You know, the public goes to see movies like "The Horse Wisperer" (click here) and come away with a greater love of animals, horses and the role people play with the species. Some might call it compassion, but, I have never known a jockey at the top of the practice to be anything except a person with more insight to his mount than any other.
Big Brown was in 'fit condition' that day, but, he wasn't interested in running. As an admirer of nature, conservation and the species one finds at most danger to protect, the Throughbred industry needs to look at its lack of ability to protect the species.
One doesn't know what the destruction of a filly that was running hard at his side in the Kentucky Derby does to a stallion on his way to greatness. To many, Big Brown was 'the sure bet' and possibly the 'guaranteed mortgage payment,' to others they were about to witness history as though a 'magic moment' was guaranteed to them because the colt had managed to finish at the top of the field in the Derby and Preakness. But, to me and I believe to his jockey, Big Brown had lost heart that day. Lining up next to more horses in a starting gate that had lead him to achieve a quarter crack in his hoof, 'the fall' of a filly that race beside him and more fuss over 'his soundness' than any horse in recent history at a starting gate, Big Brown had had enough to cause him to run, but, without the 'heart' to win.
Animals are funny and you never know exactly what their thoughts are, but, that day, Big Brown had fallen off 'his personal best' and what Kent Desormeaux decided about the 'already' Champion colt under him, as probably was discussed with his trainer before the race, is that at the top of a 'stretch run' to a Triple Crown Victory, he wasn't about to be 'the fool' that would cause the destruction of still another throughbred race horse.
Big Brown did the right thing. He measured himself before he entered the starting gate and had decided, "I ain't doin' this no more and no one can make me either." He lost heart. He worried about his leg, his wins and the reality of a dead filly. He made history on Saturday in a very different way. As a Champion owned by a group of people that never even stroked his sleek neck, he wasn't going to be 'the fool' that would 'play the game without a brain in his head.' Indeed, Big Brown is a champion. A champion that had had enough and wasn't interested in anything else on Saturday except making it to the finish line with four legs and hooves to walk on.
Take 'that one' to the bank !
Big Brown, right, ridden by Kent Desormeaux, was trying to become the 12th Triple Crown champion and the first since Affirmed in 1978.
"He was in no way, shape or form lame or sore," said Desormeaux, who was the only member of the Big Brown camp to answer questions immediately after the race.
