Report: Derby favorite trainer confident

LOUISVILLE, Ky., May 2 (UPI) -- Richard Dutrow Jr. said he expects his colt Big Brown to win Saturday's 134th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

Big Brown is a 3-1 Derby favorite in a field of 20 horses for the 1 1/4-mile race.

The long-time horse trainer has an undefeated colt that is favored to win horse racing's first leg of the annual triple-crown despite having raced just three times previously.

USA Today reported Friday that the 48-year-old Dutrow has made a comeback from demons and personal tragedies.

"I was messed up (and) everybody knew that, including me," he told USA Today.

In 1998, his girlfriend was killed in a Schenectady, N.Y., home while their toddler daughter was nearby and his father, a highly regarded Maryland horse trainer, died of pancreatic cancer in 1999.

"What's most satisfying of all is I know I have the best horse in the race."