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So you tuned into ABC’s coverage hoping to see the first triple crown winner in 30 years rooting on Big Brown. Heck. Even Shaq turned out hoping to witness history dressed as a jockey to promote another funny Vitamin Water ad. But if you had a little cash on the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, then it wasn’t to be as another triple crown threat came tumbling back to earth by the longer Belmont Stakes one and a half mile track in New York.

That’s now how it was supposed to go an hour ago in Belmont. Just ask all the so-called horse racing experts who had Big Brown as a shoe in for the first triple crown in exactly three decades since Affirmed turned the trick in 1978. Even Brown’s trainer Rick Dutrow, Jr. went as far as to guarantee victory. Let’s just say that his prediction came up much smaller than former Knick great Patrick Ewing.

Dutrow, Jr. had been second guessed most of the week for failing to address a quarter crack in his horse’s left front hoof which resulted after the Preakness triumph in Baltimore a couple of weeks prior. Instead, the trainer waited until yesterday before patching it up. Was this guy kidding? What the heck kind of approach is that when your money horse has a shot at history? Maybe he got what he deserved.

Not the poor horse though who was eased up on the final quarter when it failed to respond by discouraged jockey Kent Desormeaux, who ironically enough also was on triple crown candidate Real Quiet before being edged at the wire exactly a decade earlier.

Explained Desormeaux to a slew of disappointed reporters on the track:

“I had no horse.” 

At the time, Big Brown was running third on the outside trailing end-to-end long shot 38-1 winner Da’ Tara, who pulled away from the field for an easy upset win. It was the longest shot on the board. What I want to know is who had it cause whoever did got paid.

When Desormeaux asked his horse to step it up and run the final turn, it became apparent that Brown had nothing to give. You could tell something was wrong. Everyone who overanalyzed what happened while not paying much attention to Nick Zito’s winning thoroughbred agreed that the jockey did the right thing taking care of his horse which had delivered so much fanfare in the three years it ran winning its first five races before finishing last today.

“This horse is the best I’ve ever ridden,” an emotional Desormeaux added after his horse was the first triple crown candidate to finish last at Belmont. “Something’s wrong, and I took care of him.”

Oddly enough, when they tested it out afterwards, they couldn’t find out what was wrong. It just didn’t respond the way almost everyone expected after demolishing the field to win the first two thirds of the crown threatening to become just the 12th triple crown winner.

Another key bit of info which Dutrow admitted was that he had the third-year colt injected with legal steroids every month. The horse didn’t receive an injection before this race which fueled even more speculation about how well it performed in the Derby and Preakness.

Who knows what the reason was that it all went wrong for Brown. That’s what makes horse racing so unpredictable. You just never can tell what’s going to happen. Especially on that Belmont track which has victimized so many earlier double crown winners spoiling racing history. The longer track always seems to come into play.

I am not a gambling person but if I had been, I probably would’ve put a few bucks on the triple crown not taking place this weekend because something always seems to go wrong. Is it New York? Is it the media which acted again like vultures after the poor horse was eased up. Could they at least give it a few minutes along with its business handlers? Geez.

Nobody cared that Zito’s 38 to 1 shot Da’ Tara won the race going away. It was as if that no longer mattered. Precisely why I can’t stand the way this sport’s covered. If you can call it that. These thoroughbreds lay it all on the line and for what you ask? Hard cash which is being bet on by so many.

I’ll admit to liking the appeal of watching a race and seeing what transpires. It’s fun to be able to guess which horse is going to make a run on that final stretch. Sea Biscuit was a damn good movie too which brought more notoriety to the art of horse racing. Did I just say that? Well, there is some sort of art. There’s something about horses flying on a track which makes spectators of us. We become curious fans who want to see history as so many did today. For myself, I just watched like most other observers wondering what would take place and came away most disappointed for the poor horse and the jockey. That had to be an awful feeling.

So, will we ever get to witness history again on the race track? I have my doubts. Maybe there was something about the 1970’s which produced the last three triple crown winners including legendary Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977) and Affirmed. In case you’re wondering, before Secretariat won the crown, there was a 25-year drought dating back to 1948 winner Citation.

By 2009, it will have been 31 years since Affirmed won all three major races. Will that be enough time to produce a 12th crown winner? I’m not counting on it.