Since the weeks leading up to the Kentucky Derby right through the "foregone conclusion" of the Belmont, Dutrow had made himself an easy target, if Big Brown lost a race.

Big Brown did not just lose the Belmont. The colt had nothing left by the 5/8-pole, more than 1,000 yards from the finish line. Jockey Kent Desormeaux, perhaps embarrassed and/or perplexed, refused to let the horse run through the stretch, in some perverse way sort of repeating his performance when the horses left the starting gate.

After Big Brown became the first horse in search of the Triple Crown to finish last, Dutrow was a convenient target, a target that was hard to resist. On this day, in this race, however, he was the wrong target.

Big Brown had a gigantic tactical advantage. The Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner was the lone speed in a field filled with plodders.

And Desormeaux was too scared and too passive to take advantage of it. He was so worried about being second-guessed that he ceded control of the race to a jockey on a horse with one win in seven starts.

Da' Tara, the only other colt in the race with even a hint of early speed, had raced once against Big Brown. After the first call of the Florida Derby, Da' Tara was eighth, trailing Big Brown by 6 lengths; it was 23 1/2 lengths at the finish line.

Da' Tara does not have much speed, especially in relation to Big Brown. But, in the first 20 seconds of the Belmont, Desormeaux was pulling so hard against the reins that Big Brown was crying to be set free. The rider got his horse boxed in, was fighting with him and had to force his way outside into the clear as the field entered the first turn.

Eibar Coa, riding Tale of Ekati, was then able to push Big Brown out into the middle of the track in the long run down the backstretch as Da' Tara cruised in front through tepid fractions of 23.82 seconds, 48.30 and 1 minute, 12.90 seconds on a very quick race track, the kind of fractions that Big Brown could have set easily if only the rider had let him.

From the grandstand it might have looked like the Derby and Preakness, Big Brown sitting just off the early lead, ready to pounce. What happens early in a race, however, often affects what happens at the end.

"Desormeaux waits, Desormeaux waits," track announcer Tom Durkin cried out as the lead pack crawled down the backstretch. The jockey certainly was not Ron Turcotte on Secretariat in the 1973 Derby and Preakness when that rider sensed the situations and was aggressive.

When Desormeaux, sensing trouble, decided to press the button entering the far turn, there was no response.

"I had no horse," the rider said.

Well, he had horse at the start, but rode not to lose, overwhelmed by the moment, not wanting to be questioned for moving too soon as many had wrongly said about his move on Real Quiet in the 1998 Belmont Stakes that finished a nose shy of the Triple Crown.

Da' Tara ran the 1 1/2 miles in a very slow 2:29.65 and still won by 5 1/4 lengths over Denis of Cork. Dutrow was right when he said this was not a strong group. Big Brown had beaten these horses over and over.

Would Big Brown have won with different tactics? We will never know, but we do know he finished last with these tactics.

The last four Triple Crown winners - Citation, Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed - all won the Belmont by going wire-to-wire in front. Their riders all knew they were on the best horses and conceded nothing.

It was assumed that something must have gone wrong with Big Brown, that he must have been injured or sick or something. Turned out there was nothing wrong.

It is certainly possible the colt just went off form. Maybe there is some lingering issue that will manifest itself in the coming days. Or something that is turned into an issue.

The Triple Crown grind, the third race in 5 weeks, may have caught up with Big Brown. It was the colt's fifth race since March 5 after not racing since the previous September and missing months of training due to serious foot issues.