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Horse Racing 301:
A First Person Perspective from an ex-Jockey’s Son

By: William Mellon

If the Shoe Fits
Big Brown will win the Belmont Stakes. That is if his special shoes can hold his injured hoof together for another mile and a half.

The term to describe his podiatric injury—quarter crack—is fairly common with horses. It is a crack in the hoof wall between the heel and the toe and typically runs to the coronary band, which in layman’s terms is simply where the skin stops and the hoof begins.

The Triple Crown hopeful has had set backs due to his hooves in the past but since there is historical value added to the race on Saturday, June 7, the favorite has enlisted the help of a hoof specialist, Ian McKinlay. Even though McKinlay might not be the only authority on horse’s feet, he brings to the fold an exclusive shoe he invented specifically for these types of injuries, the Yasha Shoe.

The traditional horse shoe, like the ones we toss around the back yard, is nailed into the hoof. McKinlay’s Yasha Shoe has a unique padding that acts for the most part like a shock absorber between the shoe and the hoof. The shoe is glued onto the hoof which prevents further damage to the cracks. Even as he has provided this state-of-the-art shoe to thousands of horses, his practice comes to the forefront when his newest client happens to be the horse that everyone is picking to win The Triple Crown. According to Mr.
McKinlay, Big Brown’s injury is very minor, he is well rested and should he come up short at the Belmont it will not be due to the horse’s feet.

The Preakness Recap
Apparently Big Brown is as good as advertised. Proving the Kentucky Derby was no fluke, he made a mockery of the other horses at the Preakness, winning by nearly six lengths sauntering through the finish.

There was little spoken about jockey Kent Desormeaux’s ride outside of racing’s pundits but describing it as brilliant might be the understatement of the season. In an earlier article, I mentioned that most of the race is won and lost from on top of the horse. Although it never hurts to have a horse like Big Brown it is easier to lose on bad ride than it is to win with a great ride. When the favorite loses the blame is likely to be centered on the rider and often times it is warranted. But not in this case:
Out of the gate, Big Brown was eager to sprint to the lead.

Desormeaux tightened the reigns, nearly pulling Brown’s head to ninety degrees. After a furlong he snuck him onto the rail to conserve distance and stayed just off the pace, continuing to hold his horse back. At the halfway point, Desormeaux got off the rail to not only avoid being boxed in but to give his colt a clear path to the front. As a small group of horses made the turn for home, Desormeaux eased out of his hold on Big Brown and they shot into lead. He accelerated and cleared the trailing horses in two strides and moved back towards the rail, essentially ending any hope for the other participants. Within seconds, Brown had opened up an eight length cushion and eased to victory.

In short, Desormeaux knew he had the best horse. His job was to stay out of trouble and be near the front for the stretch run. He did. We know the rest.

Predicting the Belmont
So far my dad is two for two. As hard as picking the Derby winner is, the Preakness can sometimes provide upsets. However, he wasn’t having it. In fact, during our ritualistic pre-race phone conversation just minutes before the start, he told me what was going to happen, exactly as it developed. Then after the race, he boldly predicted that Big Brown would win the Belmont like Secretariat did in 1973. (For the record, Secretariat won that race by more than 30 lengths setting the world record for the distance.)

The field should be less than ten horses. There cannot be too many trainers who honestly feel that they can stop Big Brown’s quest for history. There only hope is that his hoof is more of an injury than his handlers are letting on and I do not believe that to be a factor.

The one horse that is being billed as the spoiler, Casino Drive, has been bred to run the mile and half oval. The last two Belmont winners, Jazil and Rags to Riches are related to him; additionally his jockey, Edgar Prado, has spoiled the last two Triple Crown hopefuls at this storied New York track.

Casino Drive is rested having had nearly a month off between his last start (a victory in the Peter Pan on this very track) and has been training solely for the Belmont. In a weird twist of fate, Big Brown’s jockey Kent Desormeaux rode Casino Drive to that victory in the Peter Pan while Prado was originally signed to be Big Brown’s first mount.

Derby contenders, Denis of Cork and Tale of Ekati along with Preakness challenger Icabad Crane will be the only horses of any reckoning. They along with Casino Drive will attempt to prevent the twelfth Triple Crown Winner from being inaugurated.

Although, it is impossible for me to forecast as thorough a beating as my father has predicted, I cannot imagine any of these horses will have the wherewithal to upset history. Unless his jockey falls off the horse somewhere along the trip, Big Brown will etch his name in the lore of horse racing following in the footsteps—albeit painful ones-- of Affirmed, Citation, Seattle Slew and Secretariat.

Sheridan Mellon was a professional jockey. We watched Alydar and Affirmed battle each other in the 1978 Triple Crown. I didn’t realize that I was watching history. He did. Sheridan is my father. I know racing because of him.

#(note from the author: at this article’s press time, the field and post positions for the Belmont had yet to be determined)