Big Brown back to the track

[jwkniska]

NEW YORK -- Big Brown was back on the track a day earlier than expected, and he looked better than ever.

The Triple Crown hopeful went out for a 1½-mile jog around Belmont Park on a rainy Tuesday morning, the first time since Friday the unbeaten colt was out exercising since a quarter crack was discovered on the inside of his left front hoof.

"I was very happy with this move," trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. said outside barn 2, where Big Brown was being walked around by exercise rider Michelle Nevin.

Asked if he looked as good as he did before the Preakness on May 17, Dutrow said "I think he looks even better then he did in Baltimore."

Big Brown will attempt to become the first Triple Crown champion in 30 years, since Affirmed in 1978, in the Belmont Stakes on June 7.

On Monday, hoof specialist Ian McKinlay treated the three-quarter inch crack. When Dutrow examined Big Brown's hoof Tuesday morning, he called McKinlay and it was decided the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner would go for a morning jog rather than wait until Wednesday.

"I felt him going to the track was not only good for his conditioning, but also good for his mind," Dutrow said. "He's been kind of aggravated that he didn't know why he's not going to the track. And we can't explain it to him. So we let him go out there today and take the edge off. He's just getting too rough around the barn."