ELMONT, N.Y. - Jockey Edgar Prado got acquainted with his Belmont Stakes mount, Casino Drive, on Thursday morning, putting him through a modest half-mile workout track clockers timed in 55.80 seconds. The Belmont main track was muddy.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Perhaps the draw on Wednesday for the 140th Belmont Stakes on Saturday could be looked at as a metaphor for the story arc of Big Brown over the past five weeks.

Big Brown's trainer, Richard Dutrow Jr., and his ownership group were looked at as outsiders before the Kentucky Derby, in which Big Brown ended up in the far outside post, No. 20. Now that Big Brown has won the Derby and added the Preakness Stakes to stand on the doorstep of a Triple Crown, Dutrow and company have become the ultimate insiders, the focal point of everything having to do with racing.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Big Brown, seeking to become the 12th winner of the Triple Crown, was assigned post 1 among a field of 10 3-year-olds in the $1 million Belmont Stakes, which will be run Saturday for the 140th time at Belmont Park.

The rail post, "takes me a little out of control, but I’m well mounted, and I’m ready to make history," said jockey Kent Desormeaux, who will ride Big Brown for the IEAH Stables and trainer Rick Dutrow.

Post Horse Jockey Odds

1. Big Brown, K. Desormeaux, 2-5

ELMONT, N.Y. - Casino Drive has more than just the pedigree to be a legitimate Belmont Stakes contender. In Kazuo Fujisawa, Casino Drive has the top trainer in Japan calling the shots.

Fujisawa, 56, has been Japan's leading trainer in terms of wins 11 times since 1993, including last year, when he won 48 races. Fujisawa learned how to train horses by working for the highly respected English trainer Gavin Pritchard-Gordon in Newmarket. Fujisawa was an assistant trainer in Japan for 10 years before going out on his own in 1988.

ELMONT, N.Y. - When taking questions from the media outside Barn 2 after Big Brown breezed Tuesday morning at Belmont Park, trainer Rick Dutrow initially dealt at length with the minutiae of the workout and the colt's ongoing situation with his quarter crack.

Then came some other topics, such as the outlook for Big Brown from the perspective of the Ragozin sheets, the colt's tentative racing schedule beyond the Belmont, and how many new friends Dutrow seems to have made over the last few weeks.