Organized Chaos

The greatest story in sports this year became the greatest flop in the span of three minutes on Saturday. And it all centered around Big Brown’s trainer, Rick Dutrow Jr.

Dutrow is less than modest and he trumpeted his horse’s cause for weeks, even through a quarter crack in one of its hooves. He said if Big Brown got out to the lead it would all be over. On Saturday he guaranteed a win in front of a national television audience.

Instead, he was left with a last-place horse and angry with a sweat-stained shirt. And what was with all that sweat? Come on I sweat but dude that was a million gallons.

Anyway, he refused to say anything to the media for a short time after, and it’s understandable if he wanted to tend to his horse first.

But that’s not the kind of guy he is. It was obvious he was ticked that he lost, that his horse let him down. Or, as he led on it was his jockey and he made that point clear on Monday.

He basically threw Kent Desormeaux under the bus for the loss. The jockey did the right thing, though, knowing Big Brown was going to lose anyhow and not knowing if something was wrong.

Dutrow, who is grating with his tone and arrogance, will forever be known as the trainer who not only couldn’t get it done but who had a horse finish last in the Belmont while trying for the Triple Crown.

That’s a little justice for this guy, and for his handlers, who all felt this horse was a rock star while pushing cameras out of the way. You lost and it was great it couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.

Here’s the race again.

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Dishonorable mention: Anyone who calls a horse an athlete. I cringed at the thought early on when the term was used. It would have been terrible for a horse to have won Athlete of the Year and it was a good bet it would have happened had Big Brown won.

Horses are animals. They run because a little guy on their back is whipping them. Oh, and most are pumped full of steroids (like Big Brown was for the first two races) and frothing (probably literally) to go harder.

I love animals. I’ve been around horses. But they aren’t athletes. They’d much rather be on a ranch with open fields than in front of thousands of people plain and simple.

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