2008 Belmont Stakes

By Author: Kellen Sears
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The 2008 Belmont Stakes was the 140th annual running of the Belmont Stakes. It took place on June 7, 2008, at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It was the eleventh race since 1978 that saw a horse's Triple Crown hopes come to an end.

In the week leading up to the 2008 Belmont Stakes, Big Brown's trainer, Richard Dutrow, Jr., assured the public that his horse's victory was a foregone conclusion. The bay-colored colt had previously been the winner of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness and was attempting to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978.

Dutrow turned out to be wrong.

Instead of seeing the first Triple Crown winner in 30 years, the 94,476 fans in attendance were treated to a monumental upset. Da'Tara led wire to wire and ended up winning the race as the biggest long shot of the nine horses in the race. Big Brown struggled throughout the race due to a crack in his left front hoof and ended up finishing dead last.

Big Brown became the eleventh horse since 1978 to win at both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness only to fail at the Belmont Stakes. He was the first of ...
... those, however, to finish last at the Belmont.

Despite exhibiting strong confidence in his horse, Dutrow was criticized all week leading up to the race regarding how he handled Big Brown's injury. The horse suffered a quarter crack in his left front hoof at the Preakness and it wasn't patched until the day before the race. Dutrow also admitted to treating his horse with legal steroids, although the colt's last dose was in April.

The loss for Big Brown was especially hard on his jockey, Kent Desormeaux. After the race, he mentioned that the horse was clearly affected by the injury and was not the same horse from the previous two races. It was the second time Desormeaux lost a Triple Crown bid. In 1998, he finished second by a nose on Real Quiet at the Belmont Stakes.

At 38-1, Da'Tara became one of the biggest long shots ever to win a Triple Crown race. He covered the 1 ½ miles in 2:29.65 and finished 5 ¼ ahead of the second place finisher, Denis of Cork. His quarter-mile fractions were 23.82 seconds, 48.30, 1:12.90, 1:37.96, and 2:03.21

The win was the second for Da'Tara. He had broken his maiden five months earlier at Gulfstream Park in his third start. He led wire to wire in this race as well.

Jockey Alan Garcia rode Da'Tara to victory at the $1 million race. He was trained by Nick Zito for Robert LaPenta. He paid $79, $28 and $14.80.

Denis of Cork, ridden by Robby Albarado, came in second and returned $5.40 and $4.10. Anak Nakal, under jockey Julien Leparoux, and Ready's Echo, under jockey John Velazquez, dead-heated for third and showed $7.60 and $6.20 respectively.

Macho again finished in fifth place and he was followed up by Tale of Ekati, Guadalcanal, Icabad Crane, and Big Brown.

AUTHOR:-
Kellen Sears writes reviews on various sporting events including the online betting websites. In this piece of write up the author highlights on online horse racing. The author also takes the readers thought on how to bet on horse racing.