Stakes high for Big Brown

Belmont ultimate test in Triple Crown chase

Fresh off an impressive Preakness win, Big Brown takes a stroll at Pimlico with exercise rider Michelle Nevin. (Associated Press)

BALTIMORE - Now comes the real challenge for Big Brown. The winner of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness not only will be dealing with the horses lining up against him in the Belmont Stakes June 7, but he will be chasing history as well.

Recent history - we're talking the last three decades - has not been kind to horses with a chance at the Triple Crown. No horse has won it since Affirmed in 1978. Ten horses since then who won the Derby and Preakness have tried unsuccessfully.

Throw in Big Brown's unbeaten status (five races, five wins by an average of almost 8 lengths) and you have more pressure. The last three contenders to enter the Belmont unbeaten were Majestic Prince in 1969, Seattle Slew in 1977, and Smarty Jones in 2000; only Seattle Slew won.

Throw in the New York connection, with jockey Kent Desormeaux now based there, trainer Rick Dutrow Jr.'s New York state of mind with his "bring it on" cockiness when he talks about Big Brown, and the horse's principal owners having worked on Wall Street, and you have a stable full of added pressure.

And that's ignoring the physical challenge of asking a 3-year-old to run three major races in five weeks, with the Belmont a 1 1/2-mile marathon, and it's obvious Big Brown must indeed have the right stuff or he, too, will come up short.

Certainly, Desormeaux knows about shattered dreams. In 1998 he was on Real Quiet, who had stirred the sport with victories in the Derby and Preakness, raising the possibility the Triple Crown drought would end at 20 years.

Desormeaux and almost everyone else at Belmont Park thought Real Quiet had, indeed, won, but Victory Gallop prevailed by a bob of the nose in a photo finish.

Desormeaux is in rare company with his second chance to win the Triple Crown. Only Bill Hartack, riding Northern Dancer in 1964 and Majestic Prince in 1969, and Milo Valenzuela, riding Tim Tam in 1958 and Forward Pass in 1968, had such opportunities. Both lost in the Belmont.

Only 11 horses have won the Triple Crown and Desormeaux understands the difficulty, even for a horse with Big Brown's credentials.

"You've got to know what freaks they were to be able to do that," said Desormeaux about the Crown winners. "Coming back in two weeks and win the Preakness and then three weeks later win the Belmont. What resilience they must have."

Desormeaux remembered his ride on Real Quiet in the Belmont 10 years ago.

"I have the feeling of winning a Triple Crown, because at the quarter-pole I had such a hold on Real Quiet, when I let him go I knew I was the winner," he said.

Real Quiet "never saw the competition coming," said Desormeaux, who had a similar feeling of confidence and then devastation in 2000 when he rode Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus in the Preakness as a 3-10 favorite.

"I thought I could not lose," he said. "I thought there was no way he could lose, and he was destined to win the Triple Crown."

But he did lose, to Red Bullet, and the dream died.

Now the dream is alive again after Big Brown dominated Saturday, although a well-rested and formidable challenger awaits in Casino Drive, a Japanese-owned horse Desormeaux calls a monster after having ridden him to victory in the Peter Pan Stakes this month.

Paddy Gallagher, trainer of Yankee Bravo, the 10th-place finisher in the Preakness, thinks Big Brown is worthy of praise.

"It looks like Big Brown might win the Belmont farther than Secretariat," said Gallagher, referring to Secretariat's legendary 31-length victory in the Belmont in 1973.

Desormeaux and Dutrow will try to do that if they can. But they also will settle for a win by a nose.

Mark Blaudschun can be reached at blaudschun@globe.com.