30 years. Many tries, no winners. Real Quiet. Charismatic. War Emblem. Funny Cide. Smarty Jones. Since Affirmed in 1978, no horse has been able to win the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes – the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Big Brown speedily, almost effortlessly, won the first two contests, not unlike many hopefuls since Affirmed.

The Belmont is last for a reason. The Belmont is spaced a week later than the other two for a reason – the grueling mile and a half. For Big Brown, the mile and a half came with humidity and 93 degrees. But Big Brown was calm. He went into the gate as a massive favorite, his best competition, Casino Drive, scratched in the morning. Big Brown and his jockey Kent Desormeaux got out of the gate cleanly.

He drew the rail earlier in the week, but Desormeaux steered him easily to the outside. He stuck around in third behind Da’Tara and Denis of Cork, but could never make a break – Da’Tara, with 1-38 odds, did and led wire-to-wire. 100,000 fans waited and waited for Big Brown to show a burst of speed, but it never came. Seeing the Crown fade away, Desormeaux slowed Big Brown, who was not injured in the race, to further ensure the horse not be injured.

There were two other Triple Crown winners in the 1970s – Seattle Slew in 1977 and the legendary Secretariat in 1973 who still holds the time record for the Belmont Stakes which he won by 31 lengths in 1973. Da’Tara’s win marked the second time trainer Nick Zito has upset a potential Triple Crown. Zito upset Funny Cide in 2003. Desormeaux rode was aboard Real Quiet when he lost the Belmont and the Triple Crown by a nose in 1998.