Big Brown to resume galloping

was thwarted in his bid for the Triple Crown in the June 7 Belmont S. (G1), is scheduled to resume
galloping on Saturday. Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. said Friday morning outside
barn 10 at Aqueduct, where Big Brown is stabled, that he would like to
see the horse run in the $1 million Travers S. (G1). The 1 1/4-mile “Midsummer Derby” will be run for the 139th
time on August 23 at Saratoga.

“I hope that
Big Brown runs there,” Dutrow said. “In a perfect
world I would want to see him win the Haskell (Invitational [G1] on August 3 at Monmouth Park),
and win
the Travers — in a perfect world.”

Dutrow said
he was looking forward to Big Brown ending the year on a high note in the $5
million Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) on October 25 at Oak Tree at Santa Anita.

“Our horse is
bred for grass, and he’s shown he can run on the grass,” Dutrow said. “That’s
supposed to translate good into Polytrack. So we will not duck that. If our
horse is good, actually, we can’t wait for him to go out there and run him in
that race.”

Santa Anita’s main track is expected to be completely overhauled beginning
July 14 with a mixture of Pro-Ride synthetic. The new surface will make its
debut with the start of the Oak Tree meeting on September 24.

Big Brown, shown during Preakness week, is raring to step up his exercise (Debra Kral/Horsephotos.com) Dutrow reported that Big Brown has been “having fun” for the past couple of weeks and has been jogging daily under exercise rider Michelle Nevin. “I think I’m going to start galloping him tomorrow,” he said. “I think we’re going to put the shoes back on Monday. We’ll gallop him for few days until Monday and maybe Tuesday start breezing him, I’m not sure. “But he’s ready. He’s put his belly back on, he’s as happy as he could be. Now I can train him the way we want to. Now he got his little break, jogging every day, so, he’s ready to roll.” Dutrow said he was still operating under the assumption that something was wrong with Big Brown because of the way he ran in the Belmont. “When you pull a horse up in a race, something is supposed to be wrong with the horse. So I’m still looking for that,” he said. “Once we gallop him, I’ll be feeling very good if Michelle tells me he’s great. Once we breeze him I’ll be feeling very good if she says he’s the same horse, he’s great. He still has these tests to pass.

“I didn’t feel it was necessary for me to jump right in to find out if he’s
OK. I was figuring to give him some time off and that’s what we did. And
everything is right on schedule with the horse.”

Dutrow said
he still has not been able to figure out what exactly went wrong in the Belmont.

“I think the
first half-mile of the race, the trip that he got, was just one of the worst
trips you would ever want to see in a horse,” he said. “After that, I don’t
understand the rest of the race.”

Dutrow said
he had looked at photos showing a loose rear shoe but did not think it was a
major factor in Big Brown’s performance.

“For it to be
an issue, the jock would have felt it, and I didn’t see it. The jock didn’t feel
it, and I would have seen it,” he said. “I know other people believe that’s what
happened, and man, I hope they’re right. I hope that’s all it was, a little
spread shoe behind. But I still have my eyes and ears wide open and I’m still
watching the horse. And I don’t see anything with the horse, other than
everything is beautiful.”