Despite Belles’s Death, Preakness Must Go On

We’re eight days away from the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico in Maryland, the second leg of the Triple Crown, run at 1 3/16 miles. Still, it seems the pall of the death of filly Eight Belles is falling over the racing scene.It is one of the strange and simple truths of horse racing that it moves along for both the fortunate and the forlorn. A trainer on his way to the biggest race of his life, whatever it may be, will still have a barn full of horses. Just because you’ve got a big horse headed to Pimlico doesn’t mean you get a pass on the shoeing, the checkups, and the pre-dawn workouts. The death of Eight Belles certainly cast a shadow on the barn of her trainer, Larry Jones — but he’s still got horses that need to be fed. Horses continue to go to the gate, races are raced, and winners win.Big Brown is headed to Baltimore to try to take the second jewel of the Triple Crown. I am not suggesting callousness — far from it. We have two stories now: one of them a tragedy, the other a triumph, and they both deserve attention. Big Brown didn’t just win the Derby. He won it resoundingly, completely, and emphatically. He didn’t get it handed to him, and it wasn’t a freak occurrence. The horses he beat had set a respectable pace, and there was no too-fast-too-early flameout. He didn’t saunter home, grabbing the race with a slow final time. There are no exceptions, no asterisks to his victory, and no excuses.Horse racing is a tricky business — anything can happen — but one cannot escape the feeling that we are heading toward something grand. Unless some 3-year-old grows wings in the next few days, or the Maryland Jockey Club allows for deus ex machina maneuvers — helicopter rides to the finish line? — it seems as certain as anything can ever be in racing that Big Brown will be standing in the winner’s circle again come next week.Of course, as certain as anything can be in racing is not very certain at all. Spectacular Bid, called by jockey Bill Shoemaker the best he ever rode (which is like saying it’s the fastest car Mario Andretti ever drove, or the drunkest Keith Richards has ever been), was a dead certainty to take the Crown in 1979, after winning the Derby and the Preakness. Belmont morning, he stepped on a safety pin in the barn. That afternoon, in the jockey’s room before the race, his rider got in a fistfight. His foot was sore, and he got a bad ride. The jury will remain forever out as to whether it was the jockey or the hoof, but it doesn’t matter, because he finished third.Anything can happen.That doesn’t mean that Big Brown shouldn’t be getting his coat brushed for the picture. In retrospect, Big Brown’s final Derby odds of $2.40 on a dollar seem ludicrous. This is what his trainer, Richard Dutrow Jr., had been saying all along. He deserved every bit of criticism he got for being cocky going into the Derby — his horse had only won three races. Now, he’s won four, and the last one was the Kentucky Derby, against the best horses in the country.The horse romped home 4 3/4 lengths ahead of Eight Belles. It’s no disrespect to note that Eight Belles, too, ran a big race. She was 3 1/2 lengths ahead of the show horse, Denis of Cork.Did it take much? Big Brown’s jockey, Kent Desormeaux, said that for most of the race, “He was just galloping, floppy eared, off the bridle, cruising.” Until the far turn, Desormeaux “just left [Big Brown] alone and let him canter.”And when he asked the horse for his run? “Whoosh,” Desormeaux said of the horse’s push. He also said that Big Brown gave him goose bumps.I don’t think he’s the only one.Is this the year? Will we break our Triple Crown drought? It’s been a long time since 1978. We’ve watched them try, and we’ve gotten close.Eight Belles is gone, and that puts Big Brown 8 1/4 lengths of the last horse chasing him. The last horse to open up such a margin of victory was Assault. He won the Derby by eight lengths in 1946. Before that was Whirlaway. He won the derby by eight lengths in 1941. Both of those horses won the Triple Crown.There are surprises in the wings, though: There are good horses out there. Certainly, there’s a world full of safety pins waiting to be stepped on. But the braggadocio around Big Brown is starting to ring true. Still, let’s take it one race at a time. The question isn’t if Big Brown will win the Triple Crown — it’s whether or not Big Brown will win the Preakness.Consider this: When the Pimlico linemaker Frank Carulli was asked to guess what he might make the odds on Big Brown next week, he laughed. “Below even money, let’s put it that way,” he said.mwatman@nysun.com

Despite Belles’s Death, Preakness Must Go On

Despite Belles’s Death, Preakness Must Go On

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