ELMONT, N.Y. — A feisty Big Brown was back in his barn after a final workout Tuesday for the Belmont Stakes, and Rick Dutrow Jr. wasted no time zeroing in on the crack in the colt’s left front hoof.
No blood.
“I didn’t see any,” the trainer said, promptly relaying the good news to hoof specialist Ian McKinlay by phone. “I said that he went good and I don’t see any issue at all. I told him that everything was beautiful.”
Big Brown ran 5 furlongs in 1:00.03 with Dutrow and co-owner Michael Iavarone looking on near the finish line, where they expect Big Brown to be proclaimed a Triple Crown champion Saturday.
No such celebration has taken place at this track since 1978, when Affirmed dueled with Alydar and captured thoroughbred racing’s highest honor.
“We’re as happy as we can be,” Dutrow said. “There’s not any issues with our horse.”
If the colt comes out of the race in good shape, Iavarone said Big Brown would run in the Travers at Saratoga in August and the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita in October.
“We’ll turn him over at the end of the year” to Three Chimneys farm, he said.
That’s where Big Brown will begin his breeding career.
Tuesday’s workout was important in two ways: Big Brown did it without a patch on his hoof, and it was his first so-called breeze since two days before he won the Kentucky Derby on May 3.
The quarter crack that was discovered May 30 is being held together by stainless steel sutures until McKinlay patches it Friday. Dutrow originally planned to have him do it Monday, but decided to wait so Big Brown could work out without it and let any seepage in the area drain.
“We jumped over a big hurdle today,” he said. “He’s right on target, couldn’t be any better.”
Post positions will be drawn today, and it appears eight rivals will take on Big Brown, with Japanese-bred Casino Drive the only one besides the Derby/Preakness winner likely to have single- digit odds.
Casino Drive is scheduled to work out today, the same day Anak Nakal, Da’Tara, Denis of Cork and Macho Again are expected at Belmont. Icabad Crane, Tale of Ekati and Ready’s Echo are already on the grounds.
