Dutrow Meets The Press

Trainer Dick Dutrow held a press conference in the backside recreation room about 90 minutes after Big Brown took his first galloped around the Churchill Downs track.

The bulk of the questions the trainer answered were about the quarter cracks in the Florida Derby winner's feet that have twice interrupted the colt's career.

"He had an infection in his foot, and it had to come out somewhere... and that's what turned into a quarter crack with him," Dutrow said.

Dutrow said a horse usually recovers in 10 to 12 days from an injury like the one Big Brown had, however the colt took longer to recover from each crack, one taking as much as 40 days.

"It's something that you don't want to treat with antibiotics to kind of fight it away, you want it all to come out, so you you've got to wait out the process," he said.

"A quarter crack is not supposed to end a horses career," Dutrow continued. "I was never worried about not getting to the races with him because of the quarter crack that he had, but it is on your mind that it could reappear... keep setting you back, keep setting you back. It's not fun to go through that stuff when you've got a runner like him."

"It's like looking at a real pretty girl, but you can't be with her, you can't get there," he joked.

He said that the crack is there, and that the chance that while it could reoccur, he has taking the precaution of surrounding him by the right specialists and using special rubber-tipped glue on shoes.

"It's just the way he's shod now, we don't do anything special," he said. "I have the special guys around his feet and if they see something coming they'll talk to me about it but so far man, he's been good."

"The horse is good in every way that I can see," he said. "I hope I'm not missing anything."

In addition to talking about his horse's feet, Dutrow elaborated on his statements earlier in the week that he made about the Kentucky Derby being just another horse race.

"I'm training him for a horse race," he said. "It doesn't make me feel anything different just because he's training for the Kentucky Derby, even though it's the biggest race in the world."

He said that ideally if there are 20 entries that he would want his colt to break from gates 7-to-10 or gate 15, the first slot in the auxiliary gate. Still, he said that he isn't too worried about Wednesday's post position draw.

"I'm not even worried about our post position, I wouldn't even care where it's going to be because I know things are going to work out good," he said.

Dutrow said that he is confident that his horse will win the race and he plans to bet as much on the horse as his friends will let him.

"I feel very confident that if Big Brown breaks with the field, I think he's going to run a big race," Dutrow said. "I just haven't seen any other horse with my eyes that can beat him. That's all."

In particular he was dismissive of the chances of filly Eight Belles when asked what he thought about her entering the race.

Dutrow said he love her being in the race.

"I can't imagine there is a filly in this world that can beat Big Brown," he said after he was pressed to expand.

And he wasn't smiling.

Big Brown galloped today, and will work three furlongs on Thursday.