Big Brown isn't horse of indifferent color

If colt takes lead, race all but over, trainer boasts

By Richard Rosenblatt, Associated Press

Published May 30, 2008 at 8:31 p.m.

Text size  

• 0 Comments
• Email
• Print

Already convinced Big Brown will be the first Triple Crown champion in three decades, Rick Dutrow Jr. now is predicting when it will be safe to start celebrating at the Belmont Stakes.

"I have to think if he ever gets the lead in the Belmont, the race is going to be over," Big Brown's trainer said Friday. "I can't see any horse coming up and catching him."

What he's not sure of is when his unbeaten Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner will be taken to the front by jockey Kent Desormeaux.

If there's no other horse capable of keeping up with Big Brown early in the 11/2-mile Belmont on June 7, "That's only going to help us, make things easier on us.

"I'm not saying we're in a hurry to make the lead," Dutrow said. "At any point, when he's got a head in front, I just can't see someone coming and catching him."

Time and again, Dutrow has said there isn't a 3-year-old in the same class as Big Brown, not even Casino Drive, the unbeaten horse from Japan likely to be the second betting choice in what could be a 10-horse field.

After Big Brown returned from a third straight morning gallop around Belmont Park, Dutrow continued to marvel at his colt, whose dappled coat gleamed in the morning sun.

"Look how good he looks. He just looks unbelievable," Dutrow said. "I can't believe I'm training a horse that looks this good and has done what he's done. Forget about it. There's no way in the world there's any horse that's doing any better than Big Brown. It's impossible."

Big Brown still has stainless- steel sutures on the inside of his slightly cracked left front hoof, but he hasn't missed a beat since he resumed training Tuesday after missing three days because of the injury.

"Not an issue," Dutrow says again and again when asked if the injury could affect Big Brown's performance.

In fact, he said he doesn't see anything standing in Big Brown's quest to join the likes of Affirmed, Seattle Slew and Secretariat as Triple Crown champions.

A wet track?

"He would love it. It would work to our advantage," Dutrow said.

Post position? "I don't even care about the post position," he said.

Anything?

"If they said, 'Rick, we're going to run the Belmont on the grass this year,' I'd say, 'That'd be fine,' " he said.

Big Brown has dominated all five of his races. He cruised to a 43/4-length victory in the Derby. Two weeks later, he won the Preakness by 51/4 lengths.

ETC.: Macho Again, winner of the Derby Trial and runner-up in the Preakness, worked a half-mile in 48.20 seconds at Churchill Downs on Friday. Trainer Dallas Stewart said the colt will be shipped Tuesday to Belmont. . . . Dutrow said Big Brown will have his final tuneup for the Belmont, a five-furlong workout, Monday or Tuesday.

Featured

• 2008 Voter’s Guide

  

  Use our Ballot Builder tool to compare your viewpoints to the candidates.

• A Dozen on Denver

  

  Sandra Dallas wrote 'Lennie's tavern' for our ongoing fiction series. Check it out!

• Rocky Multimedia

  

  The news comes alive in our videos and slide shows. Catch up on today's events.

• Bronco Dean's rant

  

  Listen to Bronco Dean's totally biased pregame rant about the Broncos-Jaguars game.

• Presidential Elections

  

  See how Colorado counties have voted through the years.

• County election profiles

  

  A look at how residents in each Colorado county may vote.

• A dream fulfilled

  

  A Rocky Mountain News and MediaStorm production

• Latest from Dove Valley

  

  Click for more broncos videos.

• Sam Adams' Open Mic

  

  No. 44 means a lot to Floyd Little