Big Brown jogged one mile under exercise rider Michelle Nevin on Wednesday morning at Churchill Downs in his first trip to the racetrack since winning the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1).
 
The two-week turnaround from the Derby to the Preakness Stakes (G1) on May 17 continues to be a focal point for trainer Rick Dutrow Jr., a self-described “freak” about properly spacing the races of his horses.

“Coming back in two weeks, he is stacked up against it,” Dutrow said. “He’s not a robot. He has run fast races and fast numbers and two weeks is not ideal timing. You need time to regroup, and we haven’t got that kind of time.”

With only two weeks to recuperate, Dutrow is not expecting Big Brown to be able to duplicate his Derby effort, which earned a negative-1 on the Ragozin Sheets, the best of any Derby winner since Ragozin Thoroughbred Data began compiling its speed figures.

“He’s got to react to it, but he is not going to need to run a minus-1 again,” Dutrow said. “He’s not going to need it. The other horses going into the race, their numbers don’t match up with his. They don’t even come close. So, I am figuring he can run a 5 and still win the race.

“I hope there is no one over there that is going to run big. I felt that half of them didn’t belong in the Derby anyway.”

Dutrow will consider giving Big Brown a “minor” workout after he arrives at Pimlico Race Course on May 14.

Saying “we’re there to win," Ronnie Lamarque announced on Wednesday that Recapturetheglory, who finished fifth to Big Brown in the Derby, is confirmed for the Preakness.

“First of all, we know that we belong,” said Lamarque, the co-owner of the horse, along with trainer Louis Roussel III. “Of the 33,000 horses that were foaled three years ago, 20 of them made it to the Derby and we beat 15 of them.

“Big Brown is a bear, but we’re not going to run in it to run second. We’re there to win, and we believe it is a speed-favoring racetrack. I’ll look at all the other entrants. They don’t scare me at all, and I believe our horse definitely belongs and we feel like the Preakness is our kind of race.”

With assistant trainer Lara Van Deren up, the Illinois Derby (G2) winner jogged a mile and galloped a mile on Wednesday morning at Churchill Downs.

“Right now, he’s doing very, very well,” said Lamarque. “The colt is in Kentucky and in very wonderful hands of Lara. We wouldn’t be considering Baltimore if we didn’t think we had a contender. I don’t want to go with a pretender.

“I hope everyone who is entering, their horse better be at the top of their game. He looks better today than he did before the Derby. When he came out of the race, I thought he would be lethargic. Now we're getting ready for the Preakness and I pray to God they know what they are getting into. They are going against Big Bad Leroy Brown. We’re ready to go against him. You never know what’s going to go on in the ring because we’re not afraid.”

Racecar Rhapsody, the fourth-place finisher in both the Lane’s End Stakes (G2) and Coolmore Lexington Stakes (G2), has joined the list of challengers for Big Brown in the Preakness.

Final decisions have not yet been made on the status of Harlem Rocker and Macho Again for the Preakness. Macho Again won the Derby Trial Stakes on April 26 at Churchill.

Harlem Rocker is unbeaten in three career starts, including the Withers Stakes (G3) on April 26.

“The Preakness is a good progression for him,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “Taking on Big Brown is not something everyone is looking forward to. But, he’d be going into the Preakness with the same record Big Brown went into the Derby with.”

Other Preakness candidates include Behindatthebar, Giant Moon, Kentucky Bear, Riley Tucker, Tres Borrachos, Stevil, and Yankee Bravo.

Giant Moon breezed five furlongs in 1:01.04 on Wednesday at Belmont Park. A three-time stakes winner, Giant Moon finished fourth in the Wood Memorial Stakes (G1) on April 5 at Aqueduct in his most recent start.

“If you look at the Derby, only two horses ran really well,” Schosberg said, referring to Big Brown and Eight Belles. “In the Preakness, it will be a new group of horses and I think my horse should move forward off the Wood. It depends on how much he moves forward, but I think he can run a good race in the Preakness.

“On the other hand, I don’t see anyone beating Big Brown if he runs back to the Derby,” Schosberg continued. “Even if he runs a couple of lengths slower, I don’t see anyone beating him. But they still have to go around once.”