Results tagged “Belmont Stakes” from The Sports Desk

Even if the horse racing gods don't stop Big Brown's slightly sleazy owners and trainer from winning the Triple Crown, a more earthly obstacle might get in the way of the Belmont Stakes favorite.

Namely, the extra quarter-mile of soil that makes the Belmont a wholly different challenge than the Kentucky Derby. I covered too many failed Triple Crown bids -- five in my years as a racing writer -- to think Big Brown is going to have it easy. I saw too many horses look like Triple Crown winners as they turned into the long homestretch to think Saturday's race will be over before it's over, let alone before it's begun as trainer Rick Dutrow has boasted.

I looked up the postmortem I wrote after the 2004 Belmont, in which Triple Crown hopeful Smarty Jones led but was passed by Birdstone. ...