Filly’s Death Casts Shadow Over Big Brown’s Derby Victory

Big Brown won the Kentucky Derby. Eight Belles, a filly, fell and fractured both of her front ankles. She was euthanized on the racetrack. Big Brown had missed months of training because of sore hoofs in his front feet. The colt's trainer, Richard Dutrow Jr., had predicted victory. He had won $384,000 on his horse Saint Liam at the 2005 Breeders’ Cup Classic. The horse had only one winner in Kentucky derby history, Clyde Van Dusen, in 1929. It was the first time since Regret in 1915 that a horse pulled into Churchill Downs so lightly raced and left a Derby champion.