Horse Racing | Casino Drive poses threat to Big Brown

ELMONT, N.Y. — Casino Drive will try to derail Big Brown's Triple Crown attempt in the June 7 Belmont Stakes.

Casino Drive's breeding shouts Belmont, his two career races have been impressive and he will be ridden by Edgar Prado, who has spoiled two of the past three Triple Crown attempts.

Big Brown, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, is 5 for 5 and is seeking to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed accomplished the feat 30 years ago.

But Casino Drive's Japan-based connections sound confident the 1 ½-mile Belmont is their race to win.

"Big Brown is a great horse, and we are honored to be running with him in a great race like the Belmont Stakes," said Nobutaka Tada, racing manager for Casino Drive's owner, Hidetoshi Yamamoto.

Tada is tending to Casino Drive, a Kentucky-bred by Mineshaft out of the mare Better Than Honour, until trainer Kazuo Fujisawa arrives from Japan next week.

In 2006, Casino Drive's half-brother, Jazil, won the Belmont Stakes, and last year his three-quarters sister, Rags to Riches, became the first filly in 102 years to win the race.

"We didn't bring him here, his pedigree brought him here," Tada said Wednesday, noting Casino Drive was purchased for $950,000 at the 2006 Keeneland September Yearling Sale in Kentucky.

Favored Casino Drive won the Grade II Peter Pan Stakes by 5-¾ lengths over Mint Lane on May 10 at Belmont. Kent Desormeaux, Big Brown's rider, was aboard Casino Drive in the 1-1/8-mile Peter Pan.

"He's a phenomenal talent," Desormeaux said of Casino Drive. "We've got our hands full with this one."

Rick Dutrow Jr., who trains Big Brown, gave this assessment of Casino Drive last week: "He has no chance of beating our horse. None. I'll be running to the winner's circle when [Big Brown] hits the quarter pole."

Tada sounds amused by Dutrow's comments. "He seems to know our horse better than we do," Tada said. "But it's fun. We will see [what happens] in the race."

Dutrow has toned it down this week.

"The only possible thing that could be happening with Big Brown is Casino Drive," he said Tuesday, referring to the colt first as Coastal Drive before correcting himself. "He has to be one really good horse to knock us out. It looks like it's possible because he's run two huge races and if he shows up the right way ... I mean, that's what it's going to take to knock Big Brown out — a really good horse."

Prado, who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer, spoiled Smarty Jones' Triple Crown quest by winning the 2004 Belmont aboard 36-1 shot Birdstone. Prado won the 2002 Belmont on 70-1 Sarava when War Emblem — who finished eighth — was seeking the Triple Crown.

Big Brown gallops

Big Brown trained for the second consecutive day, galloping 1-1/8 miles on the main track at Belmont, and the healing process in his left-front hoof is "the best-case scenario," hoof-lameness specialist Ian McKinlay said.

McKinlay repaired the small crack in the hoof wall Monday with steel sutures. On Wednesday he said that because the quarter crack is healing well on its own, he did no further work on the colt.

"We're trying to stay out of the way and let nature take its course," he said.

Before the race, McKinlay is likely to apply a patch with acrylic adhesive and fiberglass mesh.

"Today the foot cooled out," McKinlay said. "It's definitely improving. Both feet are the same temperature. When one foot is warmer than the other is when you have a problem."

Big Brown jogged 1-½ miles Tuesday.

Note

• Nashoba's Key, a 5-year-old mare who was a multiple Grade I winner, suffered a severe leg injury when she reportedly kicked the side of her outdoor pen at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif. She was euthanized. Trainer Carla Gaines, in a statement, termed the injury "a freak accident."