LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) - Big Brown produced a dramatic stretch run to win the Kentucky Derby Saturday, overcoming a potentially disastrous post position to remain unbeaten in four career starts.
By Steve Ginsburg
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) - Big Brown produced a dramatic stretch run to win the Kentucky Derby Saturday, overcoming a potentially disastrous post position to remain unbeaten in four career starts.
The Florida Derby winner and betting favorite became the first horse to win America's greatest race from the 20th post since Clyde Van Dusen in 1929.
Big Brown, the Kentucky-bred son of Boundary, moved around the first turn four wide but galloped nicely as he stalked the leaders. He was sixth at the far turn but at the top of the stretch exploded past the field for an easy win.
!ADVERTISEMENT!"When he turned for home, I knew the game was over," said trainer Rick Dutrow, Jr. "We were going crazy. Turning for home, you could see no one was going to catch him."
Big Brown's 4 3/4-length triumph was tempered, however, when runner-up Eight Belles, the only filly in the race, broke both ankles and had to be euthanized soon after passing the winning post.
"After we passed the wire I stood up," said Eight Belles jockey Gabriel Saez. "She started galloping funny and I tried to pull her up. But she went down."
"She went out like a champion," trainer Larry Jones said, choking back tears. "Losing animals like this isn't fun. It's not supposed to happen."
Big Brown became the first horse since 1915 to win the Derby with only three previous races behind him and silenced talk that the 20th post is the graveyard for Derby hopefuls.
Jockey Kent Desormeaux said the outside post posed no problems for his colt, noting that Big Brown worked his way over to the pack with ease.
"No distractions, no alterations in course, just slide over," Desormeaux said after his third Derby triumph. "And he did it so within himself.
"He truly was in a gallop to the quarter pole. That's his maximum cruising speed. That's how we were going and he added power to the stride when I needed it."
THREE WINS
Denis of Cork, who entered the Derby with three wins in four starts, finished third of the 20 runners in the mile-and-a-quarter race, 3 1/2 lengths behind Eight Belles.
"He ran a big race," said Denis of Cork's jockey Calvin Borel, who won the Derby last year aboard Street Sense.
"We saved every inch of ground we could just to get there. The colt tried his heart out."
Big Brown, the near 5-2 favorite, paid $6.80, $5 and $4.80 for a $2 ticket. Eight Belles returned $10.60 and $6.40, while Denis of Cork paid $11.60.
Dutrow said he was unsure when Big Brown would ship to Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course for the May 17 Preakness Stakes, the second leg of thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown series.
No horse has won the Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes since Affirmed in 1978.
"His next race coming up is out of my hands, because it's coming back in two weeks," said Dutrow. "I'm not going to have a chance to train him. My hands are tied.
"I know he looks like he's the best horse of his crop, but still he's got to go over there in two weeks and has to show up there the right way again.
"I don't think I'm going to feel as confident."
(Editing by Dave Thompson)
