Sports / Big Brown Loose Shoe Cost Big Brown Triple Crown New photos implicate wobbly footwear in Belmont letdown By Dustin Lushing, Newser Staff Posted Jun 23, 2008 1:32 PM CDT Copied Bloodstock agent Frank Lyons, left and owner Michael Iavarone hug Big Brown following the 140th Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y. on Saturday, June 7, 2008. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) Big Brown may have lost the Triple Crown because of a dislodged shoe, newly released photos appear to show. The extreme close-ups reveal a loose shoe on Big Brown's right hind hoof about 200 yards into the June 7 Belmont Stakes. "The picture shocked me," one of Big Brown's owner tells Newsday. "When the shoe spread, a nail could have been pinching him," said Michael Iavarone. "Or he could have been stepping on a hot nail, which would have been worse." (More Big Brown stories.) Report an error