Looks like old school training with a possible day-of blowout with Big Brown for the Preakness. When was the last time you heard of that?
DRF 5-7-08 “Dutrow has it all figured out”
excerpt
Dutrow said that, starting Thursday, Big Brown would gallop every day at Churchill, including the morning of May 14, when the colt will be flown to Baltimore. A Tex Sutton charter flight has been scheduled for that afternoon.
Dutrow said he is contemplating a “very minor” blowout for Big Brown at Pimlico, either on May 15 or even the morning of the race.
“It won’t be that Friday,” he said, adding any such move would be less significant than the three-furlong work Big Brown went through on the Thursday before the Derby. “I’m still thinking about what I want to do about that. The main thing is, as long as he’s come out of the race okay, we’re fine. There’s really not a lot of training to do. As long as he stays good, I’m happy. There’s not a lot more to think about.”
Is there a bounce on the way for BB? Even Dutrow admits he can’t keep expecting higher and higher performances without Brown returning to Earth.
Dutrow said he was informed Big Brown earned a minus-1 figure on the Ragozin Sheets - the lower the number, the better the performance - with his Derby victory. “He’s got to react,” he said, meaning he believes the colt will “bounce,” and not run as fast in the Preakness. “He’s not going to run a minus-1 again. But I’m figuring if he runs like a 5, he can still win the race.”
Regarding the shoes and feet:
He said Big Brown was to have his back feet shod with conventional aluminum racing plates that morning. As for the glued-on, acrylic rubber shoes that Big Brown has worn on his front feet for the last several weeks, including in the Derby, Dutrow said: “We’re good there. His feet are fine. Cold, no pulse.”
He added that he would probably have farrier Ian McKinlay “redo him after this race, when we get back to New York. But we’re good now.”
What will Big Brown be given for Morning Line odds?
Pimlico linemaker Frank Carulli let out a big laugh when asked what his morning line might be on Big Brown. The biggest favorites in recent years were Fusaichi Pegasus, 30 cents on the dollar in 2000, and Barbaro, 50 cents on the dollar in 2006. Big Brown, said Carulli, will be set at “below even-money, let’s put it that way.”
Shortest final wagering odds for the Preakness, to this day, in its history: at 10 cents on the dollar - a tie between 1979’s Spectacular Bid and 1948’s Citation