The mystery of Big Brown’s shocking demise in the Belmont Stakes is potentially a far greater scandal than Eight Belles’ tragic breakdown after the Kentucky Derby. Yet where’s the outrage both inside and outside the industry? Why hasn’t a commission been empanelled to investigate it? Where are the custodians of the sport’s integrity when we really need them?

Call me Oliver Stone if you will. That’s O.K. I’d rather be known as a conspiracy theorist than a cover-up artist. I’d rather be known as somebody who cares more about the honesty and integrity of racing than about going to any lengths to avoid controversy in order to protect the sport’s image.

Many fans believe that racing isn’t always on the up-and-up. They are cynical about the sport, and it’s largely the sport’s fault. Any sport that permits drug usage is automatically asking for trouble. It’s axiomatic in racing that drugs always are ahead of the means to detect them.

The people who fix races generally aren’t outsiders. They’re people who are licensed by various racing commissions. I’m talking about unscrupulous jockeys, trainers, and veterinarians. Yes, that’s right, veterinarians. They have virtually total access to every horse in every barn, yet very little accountability.

Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that somebody with a valid New York license had in his or her possession a new tranquilizer that current tests won’t discover. Let’s say that somebody wanted to give it to Big Brown. How easy would it be to slip into the barn at night and do it?

So far I haven’t read that the stewards ordered Big Brown’s urine and/or blood to be tested after the Belmont. If not, why not? If so, what were the results? Maybe the tests would show nothing – remember, drugs always are ahead of the means to detect them – but the stewards at least should make the effort in order to protect the public.

The late trainer Jimmy Croll, who died just days before the Belmont, always contended that an unscrupulous veterinarian got to his Holy Bull before the 1994 Kentucky Derby and gave him something that caused him to run the worst race of his career. Like Big Brown, Holy Bull was favored. But for some inexplicable reason, the stewards failed to have him tested.

I want the guards at Big Brown’s barn questioned. I want to know the names of everybody who had access to the colt. I want to know if anybody suspected anything. I want to know if trainer Rick Dutrow or managing partner Michael Iavarone had any gambling debts hanging over their heads or any associations with characters even more unsavory than themselves.

I want to know why Dutrow was wearing a cap promoting Donald Trump’s Atlantic City casino. Everybody knows that when a big favorite runs out of the money in a big race, the bookmakers, legal and otherwise, cash in big-time. At the least, Dutrow’s cap was in poor taste, like just about everything else he says or does.

You’re laughing? Well, surely you haven’t forgotten how gamblers got to an NBA referee. That same crooked referee, in a recent statement, alleged that NBA officials conspired with referees to fix certain games so that a playoff series would be extended. That’s a powder keg that could blow up the sport.

I want the stewards to call in jockey Kent Desormeaux and grill him about why he stopped riding Big Brown in the stretch instead of trying to get second, third, or fourth. A jockey never pulls up a horse who is showing no signs of distress. He is morally and legally obligated, for the sake of the game’s integrity, to ride his horse to the end and get the maximum out of him.

If Desormeaux felt something was wrong with Big Brown, we should tip our caps to him for protecting the colt from injury. But so far tests have revealed nothing. He appears perfectly fit. He apparently wanted to run, only to be held back by Desormeaux. Does anybody have any idea how many millions changed hands around the world because Big Brown didn’t hit the board?

I am not questioning Desormeaux’s honesty. I am not questioning anybody’s honesty. But for the sake of the sport’s integrity, I do want better explanations than we’ve been given so far.

I’ve felt all along that what happened to Eight Belles was a freak accident, an act of God. Oh, make no mistake. I’m glad the Eight Belles tragedy has inspired a healthy debate about breeding philosophies, racetrack safety, medication, and other worthwhile issues. That will be its legacy and its only redeeming virtue, even though I’m convinced that, at the end, it will be viewed as simply one of those terrible things that couldn’t have been foreseen or prevented.

But the Big Brown scandal is a different matter. This was no act of God. It was, quite likely, an act of men, craven and venal ones, who cared nothing about the public or the game’s integrity. They used Big Brown to make a big score because they knew that racetrack security is a farce and that it’s easy to hide gambling money.

If this were about, say, the fifth race at Philadelphia Park on a Wednesday, conspiracy theories would get a lot more traction with the press and public. That’s where fixed races happened, not the classics. We regard the classics with such reverence that we simply refuse to believe that anybody would be audacious enough to tamper with a Derby or a Belmont.

But from a fixer’s point of view, that’s the beauty of it. The sheer audacity of tampering with a classic provides a cover of sorts. Nobody except wacko conspiracy theorists believe that anybody would have the guts to pull off a high crime or misdemeanor with the whole world watching.

That’s a big mistake. For reference, see the 2000 U.S. Presidential election. Check out the lies that were justification for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Even now, despite all the evidence to the contrary, many Americans simply refuse to believe their leaders would lie to them. Which is exactly why they got away with it.

The media should now allow the racing industry to sweep the Big Brown case under the hay. It should demand the same response that the Eight Belles tragedy inspired. Commissions should be appointed, investigations launched, individuals called on the carpet.

The sport’s credibility is on the line. The public has the right to know exactly what happened with Big Brown, and let the chips fall where they may.