Triple Crown 'inevitable' for Big Brown

Triple Crown hopeful Big Brown is a certainty to win Saturday's Belmont Stakes but will not replicate the dominance of famed winner Secretariat, his trainer and jockey said.

Big Brown is heavy favourite to become the 12th Triple Crown winner and the first in 30 years after wins in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes - the first two legs of thoroughbred racing's top honour.

Trainer Rick Dutrow stood by remarks made this week that victory in the mile-and-a-half race was a "foregone conclusion" and jockey Kent Desormeaux said Big Brown's power would be too much for the second favourite, Casino Drive.

"There's just no way this horse (Casino Drive) can beat Big Brown in a race. That's impossible," Dutrow told reporters in New York City.

Yet neither would venture that Big Brown could duplicate the magnificence of Secretariat, who completed the 1973 Triple Crown with a 31-length victory at Belmont in two minutes, 24 seconds - a world record for a mile and a half that still stands.

"I'm the kind of rider who wouldn't win by 31 lengths," Desormeaux said.

"I would be more concerned about the horse's health. I have interest in him as a stallion and I'm going to try and win as easy as I can if I have that luxury."

Dutrow has surprised horse racing circles with immodest boasts about his unbeaten colt but agreed Secretariat's record may not be in jeopardy.

"That was run a long time ago. Maybe the track was really fast that day. It's not important," he said.

The trainer added that most of his work was done and that he just needed to "get out of the way" of the horse and its jockey.

Desormeaux said he plans to turn Big Brown loose and that on a longer course, he would not ask for the big finishes needed at the Derby and Preakness fields.

"I wouldn't ask him to give that big burst," Desormeaux said. "It's a marathon. It's not about speed. I would just let him out and lengthen his stride. That's all that Big Brown needs, is to be turned loose.