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Members of a Congressional subcommittee scolded the horse racing industry Thursday for endangering thoroughbreds with lax drug policies and faulty breeding.

Mr. Croll Jr. was a Hall of Fame trainer who won the 1987 Belmont Stakes with Bet Twice and trained four thoroughbred champions.

Big Brown was considered such a stone-cold lock to become the 12th Triple Crown champion. But in the aftermath of his loss at the Belmont Stakes, the second-guessing was rampant.

For the second time in four years, trainer Nick Zito engineered the derailing of a Triple Crown bid when his Da’ Tara defeated Big Brown in the Belmont Stakes.

Big Brown was supposed to run off with the Belmont Stakes and be anointed as the 12th Triple Crown champion. But Da’ Tara, a seemingly impossible 38-1 long shot, prevailed.

Kent Desormeaux has twice ridden horses to the verge of the Triple Crown. First Real Quiet, now Big Brown — two horses, two Belmont Stakes, two very different losses.

ABC’s lengthy run-up to the Belmont Stakes was almost entirely about Big Brown. No reporters followed any horse and trainer but Big Brown and Rick Dutrow.

The horse had appeared as some rippling bolt of destiny, his very name conjured from myth: Big Brown, as timeless and plain as Shane or Paul Bunyan.

Big Brown entered Saturday’s Belmont Stakes as the standard-bearer of an industry carrying a level of expectations that were enormous and perhaps unfair.

A foot bruise may keep Casino Drive from racing Saturday, although the colt has not been scratched yet, and Big Brown appears to be the mortal lock.