The Kentucky Derby favorite, Big Brown, trained by Richard Dutrow, Jr. won the 134th Run for the Roses in easy fashion starting from Gate 20. Big Brown became just the second horse in Derby history to hit the wire first from the farthest post position. Clyde Van Dusen was the first to win from Gate 20. He did it in 1929.
A star was born in the $2,211,800 Derby when the unbeaten (3-0), but inexperienced Florida Derby champion came to Churchill Downs and broke loose entering the final turn to win striding away.
Big Brown's Win Marred by Eight Belles Fatal Breakdown
The filly Eight Belles gave everything she had chasing Big Brown to the wire to place, but she was more than four lengths off the disappearing Brown. Triumph and tragedy became a shared moment when Eight Belles broke both front ankles galloping out and collapsed with catastrophic compound fractures from which there was no hope of recovery. Eight Belles couldn't stand. She was immediately euthanized.
The dark gray filly was injured as she galloped out past the grandstand. Most of the 157,000 plus in attendance, the second largest Derby crowd in history, were unaware of the filly's fate until ambulances cleared the track.
Big Brown Answers Questions of Inexperience
The powerful Brown shrugged off the Gate 20 ghosts, the doubters, the question marks of inexperience, and the competition in this Run for the Roses to remain unbeaten.
Dutrow, Jr.'s patient answer to the questions of Brown's inexperience in having just three career starts prior to the Derby never changed. All he needed to win was a good break from the twenty gate, and he's a good breaker, Dutrow, Jr. repeated.
Great Break, Discipline Carried Brown to Derby Title
Brown got an excellent break and held perfect location along the outside of the pack as Hall of Fame Jockey Kent Desormeaux expertly judged the pace and the crowded conditions.
The Boundary colt rated with sharp discipline, and it was apparent that he was ready to rumble as soon as Desormeaux would call on him. When the jockey sent the message, Big Brown was the perfect willing student.
Still comfortable on the outside, he charged through the final furlongs steadily picking off the four leading contenders while easing to his left to burst into front-running daylight.
Eight Belles gained a few strides as she rushed into second position, but by the quarter pole it was Big Brown in command. In unlabored, driving strides, he raced to the finish with energy to spare, winning by 4-3/4 lengths. He covered the 1-1/4 miles in 2:01.82.
Triple Crown Champ Conversations Begin
It was a performance that will bring about Triple Crown hopeful talk until the field lines up for the running of the second jewel of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes, on May 17. The 30-year span since Affirmed won the Triple Crown in 1978 comprises the longest TC drought in history.
Denis of Cork, who ran 5th in the grade 2 Illinois Derby in his last trip, came up the rail with Calvin Borel aboard to finish third. Colonel John, the race's second favorite, was sixth.
The attendance for the event, 157,770, ranks only behind 1974's 163,628.
