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10 reasons why Big Brown bombed at Belmont

Barbara Barker

1:56 PM EDT, June 25, 2008

First it was the heat, then it was the shoes, now it's a nail ...

It has been more than two weeks since Big Brown bombed out at Belmont, but he refuses to fade from the headlines like he did from contention. Each day seems to bring another theory, another excuse, another over-reaching reason for Big Brown's turning in one of the most disappointing performances in the history of the Triple Crown.

I don't know if it really was the nail that did it, but I bet it won't be the last of the conspiracy theories. It's a long summer and there's still a lot of muck left in this stall. With that in mind, here's my top 10 reasons why Big Brown finished last in the Belmont Stakes:

1. Da'Tara told him it was opposite day.

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2. Shaquille "I'm a horse" O'Neal took Big Brown out to party in Greenwich Village the night before, and darn it if they didn't a good time.

3. Convinced that if it worked for Tiger Woods it could work for him Big Brown decided to "tinker" with his gait between the Preakness and Belmont.

4. Da'Tara told him that Omar Minaya wanted to meet with him after the race.

5. As he came out of gate, Big Brown spotted Keith Hernandez getting ready to spit from the grandstand. What he didn't realize is that Roger McDowell was hiding behind Hernandez. Big Brown's people now have pictures that prove that it was McDowell, the second spitter, who fired the loogie that ricocheted off Da'Tara before loosening Big Brown's shoe!

6. Big Brown was preoccupied by a decision to announce after the race that he always knew, deep down, that he was a Tennessee Walking Horse.

7. A huge tortoise fan, Big Brown took the conventional racing wisdom that "slow and steady wins the race" a little too seriously.

8. Was still upset from discovering that horse racing is not a sport at the Summer Olympic Games while that sissy sport, dressage, is.

9. Worried that steroids from outer space would bring a cataclysmic end to the world as we know it, trainer Rick Dutrow prematurely took Big Brown off the sauce.

10. Headline "Big Brown wins Triple Crown" just too sing-songy.