The morning after

From NYRA

On a warm and sunny Sunday morning, Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito stood outside Barn 12 at Belmont Park and happily reported that Da’ Tara, upset winner of the 140th Belmont Stakes over Triple Crown hopeful Big Brown, came out of the race in great shape, along with his stablemate, Anak Nakal, who dead-heated for third with Ready’s Echo.

Zito said both horses would be returning to Saratoga this week and pointed toward a summer campaign.

“Da’ Tara, obviously the main goal is the Travers ($1 million, Grade 1, August 23, 1 ¼ miles, Saratoga Race Course),” said Zito. “I learned one thing, Da’ Tara likes to be close to the pace. He broke his maiden going wire-to-wire. So, probably the Jim Dandy (Grade 2, 1 1/8th miles, July 27, Saratoga) and the Travers.

“We’ll see what the boys want to do with Anak Nakal, but the Travers could be for him, too,” he said. “Hopefully, knock wood, he’ll be a good four-year-old.”

It was the second Belmont Stakes victory for Zito, who in 2004 also spoiled a Triple Crown bid when Birdstone overtook another undefeated Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, Smarty Jones, in the stretch. Big Brown is the 19th horse to lose the Triple Crown in the Belmont Stakes. The others are: Pensive (1944), Tim Tam (1958), Carry Back (1961), Northern Dancer (1964), Kaui King (1966), Forward Pass (1968), Majestic Prince (1969), Canonero II (1971), Spectacular Bid (1979), Pleasant Colony (19983), Alysheba (1987), Sunday Silence (1989), Silver Charm (1997), Real Quiet (1998), Charismatic (1999), War Emblem (2002), Funny Cide (2003) and Smarty Jones (2004).

“The Triple Crown is one of the toughest things in sports,” said Zito. “Look at the horses who didn’t make it, besides the recent ones. Northern Dancer. Majestic Prince. Everything has to go right for the Derby. Everything has to go right for the Preakness. And everything has to go right for the Belmont.


“But you’ll see another Triple Crown winner. We were spoiled in the 70’s with Affirmed and Seattle Slew and Secretariat. No offense to the great trainers and owners of yesterday, but racing has gotten a lot more competitive. There aren’t the old outfits anymore like the Vanderbilts. We still have the Phipps, thank God, but now it’s a very competitive business. There are more commercial people in it and it’s pretty competitive. The trainers are pretty sharp, the jockeys are pretty sharp, and so, the whole thing is pretty, pretty tough.”

Zito agreed it was somewhat ironic he won the Belmont Stakes with a horse owned by Robert V. LaPenta, who in the early days on the Triple Crown trail had the Kentucky Derby favorite in last year’s 2-year-old champion, War Pass.

“You got to count your blessings,” said Zito. “This sport is very humbling.”

Zito smiled as he recounted his feelings watching the Belmont unfold, especially around the far turn.

“I was jumping up and down,” said Zito. “Big Brown wasn’t Big Brown, and he wasn’t making his move. I said, if well, he’s not making his move and we’re coasting pretty good, I’m starting to get real excited, you know? The guys behind him weren’t Big Brown and especially the way Ricky (Dutrow) talks, I knew I was in good shape.”

Da’ Tara, who had just a maiden victory in seven lifetime starts going into the 1½-mile Belmont, was the longest shot in the field at odds of more than 38-1.

“You got to run,” said Zito. “(Trainer) John Parisella said to me yesterday, ‘You know, a lot of people wouldn’t have run (Da’ Tara),’ and I said a lot of people would have run him. He’s by Tiznow, he had the credentials, had the speed. And the Barbaro (in which he was second) was a good prep for him.”

Zito said another contributing factor in the horse’s success was having trained at Saratoga.

“It is a tremendous place to train a horse,” said Zito. “You’re a product of your environment. If you’re up there now, you won’t believe the horses that are stabled there. It was a great secret for a while, but now, they have to open the main track on June 23.”



Big Brown, who suffered his first defeat of his career in the Belmont, was walked around the shedrow Sunday morning by Michelle Nevin, assistant trainer to Rick Dutrow and the colt’s regular exercise rider.

The connections of Big Brown, whose Triple Crown bid was derailed when he finished last behind longshot Da’ Tara in the Belmont Stakes, remained perplexed Sunday morning as to why the horse performed so poorly in the race.

“We went over him good last night after the race, and again this morning, and there’s nothing physically that’s shown up,” said IEAH Stables’ owner Michael Iavarone, speaking by cell phone from his daughter’s soccer game on Long Island. “I’m as confused as anybody. The only thing we’re resorting to right now is the track might have been too deep for him and he didn’t like it out there.”

Iavarone said a scope of the horse revealed nothing.

“He’s clean, he’s sound, he’s just angry,” he said. “He scoped clean. His feet are ice cold, quarter crack not an issue. He had a very loose hind left shoe, but that’s not an issue. We’ll just chalk it up to a question mark at this point.”

Iavarone said unless something physical shows up in the next several days, plans were to point the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner for the Grade 1, $1 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on August 23.

“Unless something shows up … we’re going to look to maintain his regular training schedule, which will be to breeze in a couple of weeks and point him for the Travers,” he said.

Iavarone said he thought the track might have been too deep and dry for Big Brown.

“I’m understanding they had an issue without water and they weren’t able to water the track and it got deep, I don’t know,” he said. [Edit note: The track was watered after slowing somewhat at midday and was scraped and sealed on Saturday morning.] “We’re perplexed, nobody can figure this one out, the horse did not displace (his palate), he scoped fine, there’s no mucous, everything is ice cold. The horse that won, he (Big Brown) had beaten him by 23 lengths in the Florida Derby and so, I don’t know. We just have to watch him carefully and make sure we didn’t miss anything.”

Big Brown, said Iavarone, would be heading to trainer Rick Dutrow’s barn at Aqueduct within a couple of days.

“We want to keep him at Belmont for a day and make sure we didn’t miss anything,” said Iavarone, a photograph of whom hugging the horse appeared in many newspapers Sunday morning.

“I love this horse,” said Iavarone. “I’ve grown tremendously attached to this horse emotionally. I wanted him to know he could run dead last or first and we would still love him.”

Second-place finisher Denis of Cork was resting well after his rallying effort in the 140th Belmont.

“He’s a bit tired, and it was extremely hot yesterday, but he’s doing well,” trainer David Carroll said.

Denis of Cork will be joined on his flight back to Kentucky early Monday morning by fellow Belmont contender Macho Again. Carroll and trainer Dallas Stewart are both based at Churchill Downs.

The stretch running Denis of Cork closed from sixth but was unable to catch the winner Da’ Tara who took the race in wire-to-wire fashion.

“I was very pleased by his effort yesterday, but without someone else joining the early pace it was just too much for us to close on the winner,” Carroll said. He has the Travers as a major goal this summer. He belongs in the major races and there’s a big win in him that will come out.”

In his first Grade 1 attempt, Lets Go Stable’s Ready’s Echo rallied to finish in a dead heat with Anak Nakal for third. Trainer Todd Pletcher was pleased with his colt’s finish and appearance this morning.

“He came out of the race well,” Pletcher said. “I thought our horse ran a good race. We were pleased with his effort. Right now, it’s too early to tell where he will go from here.”

Trainer Dallas Stewart said that Macho Again, his fifth-place finisher in Saturday’s Belmont, was doing well and would be shipped back to Kentucky on Monday morning.

“He came back fine and ran well yesterday,” Stewart said. “The distance was just more than he wanted.”

There are no definite plans at this time for Macho Again’s summer campaign. Stewart indicated they would return to Churchill Downs and then determine a schedule of upcoming races for the son of Macho Uno.

Charles Fipke’s Tale of Ekati is nursing a “gash” on the outer bulb of the right-hind heel, according to trainer Barclay Tagg. Tale of Ekati chased Da’Tara for about a mile before fading to a sixth-place finish.

“He was fine until he got stepped on,” Tagg said. “He has a gash. I don’t know how bad it is. I know he is walking sore on it. Anytime a 1,000-pound horse steps on your heel at 40 miles an hour, it’s not pretty. I don’t know how long the gash will take to heal. Each gash and each horse is different. It should heal in about a month, but you never know.”

Tagg experienced the disappointment of not winning the Triple Crown after Funny Cide’s run was stopped by Empire Maker in the 2003 Belmont. He also understands the challenge of winning the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont within five weeks.

“It’s a tough series; it’s supposed to be tough,” Tagg said. “It’s tougher to get there. You have to get your horses there for the first Saturday in May. If you don’t get your horse there for that, then you’re not going to have a shot at the Triple Crown. Also, there is more competition. Instead of drawing from a pool of 5,000 horses years ago, we are drawing from a pool of 35,000.”

Tagg said he will monitor Tale of Ekati, winner of Aqueduct’s Grade 1 Wood Memorial, over the next few weeks before he considers a summer campaign for the colt.

Guadalcanal came out of the Belmont still a maiden, but none the worse for wear, according to owner/trainer Fred Seitz. He was seventh in the Belmont.

“I’m looking at him now, and there’s not a dot on him,” Seitz said. “We’ll take him back home and re-group. The farm is about 10 miles from Keeneland, so I might just bring him home. I own him, so I can take my time with him. He’s had two 1 ½-mile races in two weeks, so I may just give him a week off and turn him out.

“We have a lot of options with him, and we’ll probably go back on the turf.”