Dutrow Unimpressed By Big Brown's Position

ELMONT, N.Y., June 4 -- The post position draw breakfast for the 140th Belmont Stakes broke up Wednesday morning in the track's terrace dining room, and reporters rushed to envelope Big Brown's trainer Richard Dutrow in a cocoon so tight he couldn't help but laugh.

"Are you enjoying this experience at all?" a reporter asked, jamming a microphone in Dutrow's face.

"No," he said, looking quite joyful. "I am not."

If the quarter crack discovered May 24 in Big Brown's left front hoof hadn't penetrated Dutrow's dense wall of confidence, drawing the inside post for the 1 1/2 -mile Belmont Stakes wasn't going to, either.

"It don't matter what post he drew; he's much better than these horses," Dutrow said. "The only horse that is even remotely close is Casino Drive, and I'm not afraid of him at all. I have Big Brown. All you have to do is look at his races. He has the move he needs when he needs it, and I mean he has just erased whatever competition he has faced."

Nine challengers were entered Wednesday to try to stop Big Brown's quest to become the first Triple Crown winner in 30 years, including Guadalcanal, a winless runner entered at the last minute by Kentucky-based trainer Fred Seitz.

Post position often means little in distance races at Belmont, with its long stretches and sweeping turns, but horses starting next to the rail can be forced to show speed early to avoid getting pinned inside.

"There's not much speed in the race. [Big Brown will] probably come out on his own and be forwardly placed," said Belmont linemaker Eric Donovan, who saddled Big Brown with morning-line odds of 2-5. "I wouldn't be surprised if he came out of the gate into the three path, just so he can be clear. If he's sitting right on the rail and someone comes over on him, that's trouble. If he comes off a few paths, he's got room to work with."

Jockey Kent Desormeaux had the same idea.

"I'll have to jockey for position coming from the one hole, but I feel I'm well mounted," he said. "Instead of cueing him and letting him go [at] the break, I'm going to just let him out slowly and increase his stride."

Donovan made Casino Drive the second choice in the morning line with odds of 7-2. Denis of Cork, third in the Kentucky Derby, was next at 12-1 with the rest of the field at 20-1 or 30-1 except for Guadalcanal, who is 50-1.

The Japanese connections of Casino Drive laughed and joked among themselves while English-speaking reporters strained to understand an interpreter. The colt, by the dam of the most recent two Belmont winners, Jazil and Rags to Riches, is the only other undefeated runner in the Belmont field besides Big Brown. Despite having made just two career starts, he overcame myriad issues to easily win the Grade II Peter Pan Stakes on May 10 at Belmont.

"This is a very good horse," said Nobutaka Tada, a spokesman for owner Hidetoshi Yamamoto and trainer Kazuo Fujisawa. "He has been through a lot. He hurt his knee when he was 2 and didn't race until February. Then we had to keep moving him from training center to training center and racetrack to racetrack when equine influenza came to Japan. He shipped from Japan to here, 16 hours with a stop in Anchorage, and had to go into quarantine at Aqueduct and then came out and won the Peter Pan."

No horse has won the Belmont in its third start since Prince Eugene in 1913. Casino Drive went to the Belmont track Wednesday morning with plans to gallop. Instead he wound up just walking around.

"We wanted to have a piece of work this morning, but the track was muddy so we just joked around. That's it," Tada said.

Asked if he was confident about defeating Big Brown, Yamamoto said, "The sister, Rags to Riches, won this race against Curlin. If he can't win the race, he's not a good brother."

Post positions, E8