Preakness Stakes | Big Brown's trainer copes with his past

Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown, who is favored to take today's Preakness Stakes at Pimlico in Baltimore, is perfect. The colt's trainer, Rick Dutrow Jr., admittedly is not.

Dutrow once was a drug-addled horseman who was ruled off New York racetracks for several years. Since returning, he has earned a rogue reputation after being suspended for everything from medication violations to making up a workout for one of his better horses.

Dutrow has endured his share of heartbreak, too.

In 1997, his former girlfriend was murdered in a drug-related break-in as the couple's daughter, Molly, now 13, slept in an adjacent room. In 1999, his father, Dick Dutrow, who won 3,665 career races and passed on to his son his horsemanship skills, succumbed to cancer. Worse, Dutrow was estranged from his father, who had wearied of Rick Jr.'s lost-boy antics.

Although he saddled the Kentucky Derby winner two weeks ago, Dutrow's redemptive tale has its share of rough edges. He retains the hipster habit of calling most people "babe," and talks freely about his love for a big score at the betting windows.

Dutrow has declared his 4-for-4 colt an "even-money" choice to win the Preakness and the June 7 Belmont Stakes as well to become the 12th Triple Crown champion — and the first since Affirmed swept the series for 3-year-olds in 1978.

"I'm no role model," said Dutrow, 48. "I wonder sometimes if I had to go through some of the things I've gone through to get where I am today.

"I don't think anyone would look to me for guidance, but at the same time I'm honest about where I've been and I'm confident in where I'm going."

Where Dutrow has come from in the past decade is a tack room at a barn at Aqueduct in Jamaica, N.Y.

It was his home. He had a cot, a microwave, a refrigerator ... and a two-horse barn.

"He hung his clothes up right next to his horse blankets," said Sanford Goldfarb, a commodities trader and Dutrow's first significant owner. "He might have had 100 bucks to his name, and it went to feed his horses before it went to feed himself."

Nonetheless, Goldfarb was impressed. He had been a longtime owner of standardbreds and wanted to make the switch to Thoroughbreds.

Goldfarb also recognized a kindred spirit — he, too, had willed himself from modest means in Brooklyn to a well-heeled horse owner.

Dutrow told Goldfarb about how a positive test for marijuana and persistent drug problems had derailed his training career. About how Molly's mother, Sheryl Denise Toyloy, was murdered in Schenectady, N.Y., and how Molly was living with Dutrow's mother.

Dutrow also told his prospective employer he should never leave the barn because when he does, trouble follows.

Dutrow finally told Goldfarb he could flat-out train. He helped Goldfarb win the leading-owner title in New York from 2001 to 2003.

Dutrow's sudden success did not escape the notice of the racing authorities or railbirds. He has been fined or suspended at least once every year since 2000 for medication issues. He was fined and suspended for providing misleading information about where colt Wild Desert worked leading up to the 2005 Queen's Plate at Woodbine, a race Wild Desert won.

"Half of them I deserved, half of them I didn't," Dutrow said of penalties. "I've messed some things up. But cheating and drugs is not our game. We win because we block and tackle."

As evidence, Dutrow points to his recent success in Dubai, where race-day medications are banned and Diamond Stripes won the $1 million Godolphin Mile and Benny the Bull captured the $2 million Golden Shaheen. He also takes pride in his cautious handling of Big Brown.

Of the Preakness, a confident Dutrow said, "Most likely, as long as nothing bad happens, he'll get by this one. At the Belmont, he's going to have some fresher, better horses. And, you know, the third race in five weeks could get to him.

"He's not a machine."

Notes

• The Kentucky Horse Racing Authority announced test results showed no traces of steroids in Eight Belles, the Larry Jones-trained filly who finished second to Big Brown in the Kentucky Derby but broke down after the race and was euthanized on the track at Churchill Downs in Louisville.

• In races on a muddy Pimlico track Friday, 6-year-old Student Council ($16.40 to win) took the Grade I Pimlico Special and Sweet Vendetta ($17.40) captured the Grade II Black-Eyed Susan for 3-year-old fillies.