Big Brown mystery adds to Belmont misery

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Belmont Park, the haunted house of racing, delivered again here Saturday. Next time a horse is trying for a Triple Crown, they should have the ticket-takers dress up as ghosts and goblins.

Turns out, Big Brown could be a big dud. Who knew?

Maybe he was hurt. Maybe he was overhyped. Maybe we’ll never know.

This time, this horse was supposed to be bigger than all of it. Too fast to fail. Too good to be affected by three weeks of hero worship and hoopla that precedes an attempt at this historic achievement. Too above it all to even worry, as the braggadocio of his trainer, Rick Dutrow Jr., demonstrated daily.

Turns out, Team Big Brown just talked the talk but didn’t walk the walk.

One minute, racing had a star. The next, somewhere in the final turn of the $1-million Belmont Stakes, it had Roberto Duran. As more than 100,000 in the park, and millions more watching on TV, waited for that classic Big Brown acceleration, Big Brown said “No mas.”

Jockey Kent Desormeaux said he saw no problems before the race and sensed no difference during it with the runaway Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner.

But when Nick Zito’s Da’Tara, who went wire to wire on the rail in this one after losing by 23 1/2 lengths to Big Brown in the Florida Derby, was separating a bit from Desormeaux with still more than half a mile to go, Desormeaux said it was time to take action.

“I said, OK, let’s do it, let’s engage,’ ” he said. “But I had nothing. I had no horse.”

Eventually, Desormeaux just pulled him up and Big Brown got his post-race galloping-out during the race. He crossed the finish line at the speed of a fast cow. Desormeaux was pulling hard, hoping to minimize whatever was wrong with Big Brown.

Afterward, explanations were not easily forthcoming. Dutrow passed a gathering of people with notepads and microphones and told them, “Don’t even think about it.”

That meant no interviews, although he later said that his horse seemed fine, but they wouldn’t know until Big Brown is thoroughly checked out.

Larry Bramlage, the ranking veterinarian on duty, who is sadly becoming the face of horse racing as more horses suffer more injuries in more big races, said that his crew did a quick check of Big Brown and found nothing. No soreness, lameness.

For the moment, Desormeaux’s “I had no horse” was all there was.

No talk of the steamy heat and humidity hurting the horse’s breathing, no conjecture that the repaired cracked hoof that wasn’t supposed to be a problem really was. Not even the discovery of a safety pin in the barn.

So the big horse that could, actually couldn’t. And after all the great expectations, that was enough to bring thousands of UPS drivers to their uncovered knees.

It was also enough to further frustrate a sport that is starting to wear that on its sleeve.

Since Affirmed battled Alydar down the main stretch of this fabled and freaky place and won the 11th Triple Crown in racing history, 30 years have passed and 11 horses have been in a position to duplicate that. Big Brown was the 11th.

In those 30 years, something always seems to happen. Nothing ever good. And seldom anything as strange as a 1-4 favorite getting pulled up with more than half a mile to go and no clear reason. You can sense the casual fan, watching all this, reaching for the TV remote and vowing not to waste another Saturday afternoon like this again.

Then, there are the side issues.

The third question put to Bramlage in the post-race news conference was about drugs. Dutrow had admitted to giving his horses, including Big Brown, the steroid Winstrol on the first and 15th of each month.

That is legal in horse racing in most states, including the three where the Triple Crown is contested.

Then, recently, Dutrow said he had not given Big Brown any Winstrol since mid-April. So, the question to Bramlage was, could this have affected Big Brown in the Belmont? Instead of Big Brown, did we have Ben Johnson on Advil?

Bramlage correctly wouldn’t speculate.

But the issue gets larger as the Breeders’ Cup gets closer. This October, Santa Anita will host the first of two straight Breeders’ Cup events, the next best thing in racing after the Triple Crown. More significant, this will be the first Breeders’ Cup in which steroids will not be allowed.

The California Horse Racing Board, and its president, Richard Shapiro, have mandated this, and have sent out informational material and notices that testing will begin as early as July 1.

“There’s no place for anabolic steroids in athletes, human or equine,” Shapiro said here Saturday.

So, let us review.

At the moment, horse racing is:

* Trying to find its way on drug issues.

* Taking huge hits, after the death of Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby, for allegedly inbreeding to fragility and depriving its sport of stars by seldom racing its best past age 3.

* Annually contesting the third leg of its Triple Crown showcase in a house of horrors.

Kind of makes being a Clippers fan sound good.

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Bill Dwyre can be reached at bill.dwyre@latimes.com. For previous columns, go to latimes.com/dwyre.