My friend and co-photographer Jessie post images on a website under the name of B4theBelmont. I asked her about this name and her response was that the half hour before The Belmont Stakes was the best time of the year. As magical as Christmas. Indeed, as thoroughbred racing fans, this time of year is an exciting time, especially with the possibility of a Triple Crown going into The Belmont.
As a thoroughbred racing photographer (and fan) a lot of energy is spent during this time. When the Belmont is over, all the cameras are packed away and images are sent to editors. Then, a little down time sets in. The air has been let out of The Triple Crown balloon.
This year the low seems to be a bit lower. I was never a real Big Brown follower. My pick for The Belmont this year, Casino Drive, never made it to the gate. As the magical half hour before the race arrived, I had the feeling that, at long last, I would be focusing my Nikon on the first Triple Crown winner in thirty years. No one seemed capable of matching strides with the undefeated favorite.
Longshot winner Da'Tara wins the 2008 Belmont Stakes copyright 2008 Bud Morton
The major disappointment I felt from the race was that Big Brown never even showed up. I'm not looking for excuses or pointing fingers, just feeling sad that he wasn't there to go around Belmont's sandy oval in the biggest race of his career. He just didn't fight the fight.
Congratulations to Da'Tara and his connections. With all the attention being directed to Big Brown, very little attention goes to the fact that he was the first horse under the wire in the 140th running of The Belmont Stakes
The events of this year's Triple Crown series have brought our sport a lot of attention, both positive and negative. One thing that surfaced that I was not aware of was the rampant use of steroids by many trainers. Racing needs to clean up its act, not only with steroids but the use of Lasix and Bute for race day medications.Yup!! The Triple Crown balloon is deflated but another balloon is soon to be inflated. SARATOGA.
Bud Morton
http://www.gallery.budmortonphotography.com/main.php
This page is a archive of recent entries written by Bud Morton in June 2008.
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