There haven't been too many Preakness favorites on the track quite like Big Brown. And there haven't been too many Preakness trainers around the barns quite like Rick Dutrow.
Dutrow is friendly. He's engaging. He's funny.
But he's also a busted cheater. Accused, fined and suspended for running horses with illegal amounts of drugs in their systems.
You're excused if you're a bit conflicted about whether to root for Dutrow in tomorrow's 133rd Preakness. The story should be about a local boy who has come home and finds himself within spitting distance of one of sports' biggest honors. As exciting as this Triple Crown chase is, though, Dutrow's pursuit feels an awful lot like Barry Bonds taking aim at Hank Aaron's record. If you listen closely, there's more whispering around Dutrow than in a crowded movie theater.
"I've had one drug-related suspension," Dutrow said yesterday, "which was total bull----."
He's referring to his 60-day suspension in 2005 when two of his horses tested positive for a local anesthetic called Mepivacaine.
"Total bull----," he said of the charge. "That's the only drug I've been in trouble with on the racetrack other than me. So I've only had one. Everybody keeps saying a lot of them. It's one that I know of. If you look it up, I'm sure you'd find that."
But it's not the only one. It's just the only one he acknowledges. His trainer report, maintained by the Association of Racing Commissioners International, reveals a rap sheet as long as Interstate 95 - with dozens of offenses that actually dot Interstate 95, from Florida to Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey and many in New York, where his operations are headquartered. (He has also found trouble in California, Minnesota and Ontario.)
Dutrow has been fined or suspended each of the past eight years for doping-related offenses, most recently a pair of $500 fines in January for illegal amounts of Phenylbutazone, an anti-inflammatory drug, at Gulfstream Park in Florida. According to the report, his horses have also tested positive for illegal amounts of Clenbuterol, a respiratory drug, and Lasix, an anti-bleeding medication. Told there are others, he only acknowledges the 2005 charge, which he maintains was bogus.
