Big Brown cruises to Preakness victory

By Steve Ginsburg

BALTIMORE (Reuters) - Unbeaten and still untested, Big Brown followed up his convincing Kentucky Derby victory by winning the Preakness Stakes in equally dominant fashion on Saturday.

Big Brown, the overwhelming 1-5 favorite ridden by Kent Desormeaux, grabbed the lead at the top of the stretch and easily cruised away from the field for a 5-1/4-length triumph.

"Unlike in the Kentucky Derby where I had to start knuckling on him to get him to go get the leaders, today I was slowing him down not to pass the leaders," said Desormeaux.

"It was really a dramatic change from two weeks ago in the Kentucky Derby."

The Kentucky-bred son of Boundary will run in the Belmont Stakes on June 7 in New York with hopes of becoming the 12th Triple Crown winner and first since Affirmed in 1978.

Big Brown trainer Richard Dutrow, Jr. did not feel the exhausting mile-and-a-half Belmont would be a problem for his colt, who remained unchallenged in his five career starts.

"I can't imagine we're going to screw anything up here," he said. "We're going to go with the basic plan like we always have, nothing special.

"I'm not afraid of a mile-and-a-half. I'm not afraid of five weeks, three races. I'm not afraid of anything."  Continued...