Trainer cautious about Big Brown's Preakness chances

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) - Big Brown trainer Rick Dutrow, Jr. was cautious Sunday about his colt's chances in the Preakness Stakes, second leg of the U.S. Triple Crown, despite his convincing Kentucky Derby triumph.

Dutrow was so confident about his Derby chances he called it a "mismatch" but conceded: "Pimlico is a different game."

"I really liked him in this race because everything was perfect," Dutrow told reporters the day after Big Brown's Derby victory at Churchill Downs.

"Now things start to change. Maybe there's going to be some hotshot speed horse in there. Maybe it will rain and it will be sloppy and some other horse will really like it.

"There are a lot of things that are going to be different now but I like our chances because we have the best horse. And that always helps."

Now unbeaten in all his four races, Big Brown rolled to an easy victory in the mile-and-a-quarter Derby despite breaking from the 20th post position, a spot many believed to be a death knell in America's most prestigious race.

But the Preakness is only two weeks away and that makes Dutrow a little uneasy.

"It's not a party," he said. "You can't really know exactly where your horse is when you've got two weeks between races.

"I always like breezing them three, four or five times before their next race but we don't have to opportunity to do that.

"I'm not really going to know (how the colt is). I'm only going to be led to believe."

Dutrow conceded that Big Brown might have dominated the Derby because this year's crop of three-year-olds could have been relatively weak.

"I don't see that he beat a great Derby field," he said. "Like Secretariat (in 1973), that was the best crop I've ever seen in my life. He beat them. He took them to the cleaners every time he'd run against them.

"It just wasn't a strong Derby field other than our horse."

Big Brown's victory was so thorough, it appears none of his Derby rivals will make the trip to Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course, a Preakness spokesman said.

Dutrow said Big Brown's light schedule may play in his favor heading into the Preakness.

"We do have a fresh horse. He's only got four starts. It's not like he had eight starts as a two-year-old and six starts this year where we had to grind him.

"We're going to Pimlico with expectations of winning the race but it's not going to be like it was for the Derby. If it was five weeks away instead of two I'd be talking big."

Saturday's Derby had an unhappy ending when runner-up Eight Belles, the only filly in the race, had to be euthanized after breaking two ankles.

(Editing by Dave Thompson)