Jockey Kent Desormeaux, riding Big Brown, makes his way down the first straight away during the 133rd Preakness Stakes at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland on May 17, 2008. Big Brown won the Preakness and with his Kentucky Derby win, will race for a Triple Crown at the Belmont Stakes in June. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch)

Ten times in the past 30 years, a horse has faced the Belmont Stakes as the final hurdle to a Triple Crown championship. Each time, the wheel of fortune came up: Heartbreak.

This year seems different after Big Brown's decisive -- almost dismissive -- victory in Saturday's $1 million Preakness Stakes at Pimlico.

In a near-repeat of his Kentucky Derby triumph two weeks earlier, the Kentucky-bred colt stayed just behind the leaders, outside and out of trouble, until jockey Kent Desormeaux asked him to get going. At that point, the other 11 3-year-olds were running for second place. At the wire, it was Big Brown by an official 5 1/4 lengths and he wasn't even being asked to run hard.

Macho Again was best of the rest, finishing 1/2 length ahead of Icabad Crane, who had some traffic problems on the turn. Big Brown, a bay son of Boundary, stopped the timer at 1:54.8.

"Going down the backside when Kent got him out and he was laying third on the outside, I knew it was over," said winning trainer Richard Dutrow. "It doesn't look like he got on his belly today, so we should have enough horse to get the job done" in the Belmont.