I had one look at the No. 6 horse passing the grandstand before the start of the Belmont Stakes today and it was obvious that little sucker was planning to run like hell, any way it was pointed.
Terror in a three-year-old colt accounts for much of that -- but several horse people I know also spotted Da'Tara as the horse to watch during the post-parade as they headed to the gate.
At 38 to one, it was also the horse to bet on.
And the favorite, Big Brown, looking like he was hung over, was obviously not the horse to bet on, odds be damned. The horse had a cracked hoof to start with, and I'd say there was something else wrong with him, too. It was wrong to race him, but then right and wrong don't count in the ugly thorougbred racing world.
Naturally, lyin' eyes, seeing the obvious, had no effect on the sports-prattlers on ABC, desperate to fan the execrable Triple Crown hype. Big Brown was the hero!
"It seems like the stars are lining up," one of them gushed even as lyin' eyes showed Big Brown obviously disinterested in loading into the gate. You could practically see the poor horse saying, "Been there, done that."
"That's one beautiful, unbeaten athlete," burbled the sportscaster hypemeister.
Then Big Brown lumbered from the gate and folded like a cardboard suitcase, finishing dead last in a field of nine (Casino Drive was a scratch.)
The No. 6 horse, Da'Tara, ran like his butt was on fire, steadily widening his distance all the way to the finish line.
Dang! All of those grandiose TV fanfares, wasted!
Well, at least nobody got hurt.
Now, some of the early online press stories are sobbing that Da'Tara denied Big Brown his Triple Crown. Uh, Da'Tara and seven other horses did that. But anything to keep the phony narrative drama alive.
Incidentally, where did they find that scary 9-year-old kid in the tuxedo singing "New York, New York" at the track like some Vegas lounge lizard? How do you get a 9-year-old boy to do that?
Just askin'
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