By STEVE SERBY
June 1, 2008
The Post's Steve Serby sat down with the trainer of Big Brown, who will run for the Triple Crown Saturday at Belmont Park.
Q: What qualities do you like best about Big Brown?
A: Well, whatever qualities that any horseman would want to see in a horse, he has. He just loves to train, loves the competition, loves the race, eats everything, people love him, just a ham in front of cameras . . . just a pleasure, pleasure to be around.
Q: Who's more confident about this Triple Crown, Big Brown or you?
A: Big Brown.
Q: How do you tell that?
A: When he goes out, he stands, he's surveying, he's looking to see what's going on. . . . He's very, very confident and proud of himself. When he sees the other horses in the paddock, he's just gonna fluff them off like a bunch of clowns knowing that he's got 'em in his pocket.
Q: Does he intimidate the other horses?
A: Only because they get intimidated by seeing him. He does not go out there to intimidate.
Q: So he has an aura the other horses can sense.
A: Without a doubt.
Q: A swagger?
A: Yes.
Q: Secretariat?
A: I remember that I got to pet him when he came for the Preakness. My mom has a piece of (Secretariat's) tail that's in a frame . . . and he was the best horse I've ever seen run.
Q: Fantasy Belmont - Big Brown versus Secretariat - how does that play out?
A: That is one helluva question. I would try to talk them into not running against us because I wouldn't want to see our horse get beat, and I wouldn't want to see Secretariat get beat.
Q: But you think Big Brown would have a chance to beat Secretariat?
A: I think that Big Brown deserves to be lined up in the gate with a horse like Secretariat.
Q: Tell me about your 13-year-old daughter Molly (whose mother, Dutrow's old girlfriend Sheryl, was murdered in Schenectady in 1997).
A: She grew up the right way because my mom brought her up and did an unbelievable job 'cause Molly's awful rough - she wants what she wants and she wants it now.
Q: She sounds like you.
A: Yes (smiles). She is exactly like me. I just love her to death, can't get enough of her. . . . Everywhere she goes, we win, so she's an unbelievable good luck charm for us.
Q: Your cocaine and marijuana problem?
A: I've been caught with cocaine in my car, and it became a problem . . . and marijuana, just always wanted to smoke, and the racetrack didn't want me to do it so I had to cut that out. But it was an issue with me for a while.
Q: For how long?
A: Ten years.
Q: And how bad was it?
A: Well, I just liked smoking it, I wouldn't stop, and they would always catch me, so . . . it was always an in-and-out thing. I would get ruled off for three months, be back, and then they'd call me in and I'd be dirty again and have to do another six months or whatever.
Q: You've kicked that vice?
A: Yeah.
Q: Now you're biggest vice is gambling?
