ELMONT, N.Y. – A behind-the-scenes player for many noteworthy horses over the last 15 years or so, trainer Rodolphe Brisset has stepped into the spotlight with We the People, the morning-line favorite for Saturday’s 154th Belmont Stakes. As an exercise rider for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, Brisset played a role in the accomplishments of Grade 1 winners Royal Delta, To Honor and Serve, Drosselmeyer, and My Typhoon. Working for WinStar Farm in the nascent stages of his training career, Brisset helped in the early preparations of such stars as Justify, the 2018 Triple Crown winner, and Life Is Good, now a multiple Grade 1 stakes winner, before those horses went to other trainers. While he’s trained a handful of stakes winners of his own since starting out in 2017, Brisset ranks We the People as “the best one I kept,” he said. Brisset was given We the People to train in part because of his ability to handle ornery horses. Brisset said We the People, a son of Constitution, was difficult when he first started training him, though that behavior seems like it’s in the past. Elliott Walden, president, CEO, and racing manager for WinStar Farm, which owns We the People with Siena Farm, CMNWLTH Racing, and new partner Bobby Flay, said Brisset is good with such horses. :: Get Belmont Stakes Day Betting Strategies for exclusive wager recommendations, contender profiles, and more. “He can ride them, he gets in their head a little bit, he does a really good job with those kinds of horses,” Walden said Tuesday at Belmont Park. “I felt like he would get along with him. He needed a little bit of a smaller trainer to take his time with him.” Brisset, a native of Tours, France, began getting on horses at an early age, passing all his exams to become an event rider by age 10. He quit regular school to attend jockey school at age 13 and by 16 he was licensed as an apprentice jockey. “Wasn’t very good,” Brisset said. “I was a better morning guy than an afternoon guy.” Making weight also became an issue, Brisset said. After a stint as a jockey agent in France, Brisset came to the United States with the assistance of French-born jockey Julien Leparoux, who was working for trainer Patrick Biancone in the States. Brisset worked briefly for Biancone before getting a job with Mott. For Mott, Brisset got on many good horses and became someone who would go to different locations with some of the stable’s major horses. While he didn’t get on Drosselmeyer prior to that colt winning the 2010 Belmont, he did work him leading up to the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Classic. Brisset said his time with Mott – which included working with assistants Leana Willaford and Kenny McCarthy – was invaluable. He said Mott taught him patience. “I used to jump to conclusion too quick, he always liked to slow me down on some of the things I used to say coming back on a horse,” Brisset said. “Now that I’ve been out on my own, I can see that it was easier when you jumped off one to say this horse is a Grade 1 horse. If I do that as a trainer, you got to be a little careful.” Brisset, 38, has about 50 horses between Churchill and Keeneland. While working for Mott, Brisset caught the eye of Walden, whose WinStar Farm had horses with Mott. Shortly after Brisset decided to go out on his own, Walden made a deal with Brisset that he would give him some horses if he would help get others started in their conditioning even though they would be going to other trainers. Brisset was based at Keeneland, which has a dirt surface. At the time, WinStar Farm had a synthetic surface, so by utilizing Brisset, it gave those horses a chance to train on dirt. Among the first horses WinStar gave Brisset was Quip, who in 2017 won his first two starts at 2 and captured the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby as a 3-year-old. Quip became Brisset’s first starter in a Triple Crown race, though he finished last behind Justify in the 2018 Preakness. Three weeks later, Justify became the second undefeated Triple Crown winner when he won the Belmont Stakes. “He never showed off in the morning until Mr. [Bob] Baffert got him in his program,” said Brisset, recalling his time training Justify. “We got a couple of works in him but nothing that would tell you he was going to be a Triple Crown winner, but he was so cool to be around. Anybody could ride him.” :: Belmont Stakes Day Headquarters: Get the latest news, info on contenders, past performances, picks, and more  The same could not be said for We the People, who came to Brisset last July. Brisset said the horse was tough to saddle and tough to ride. He had settled down enough to be considered for a start last October at Keeneland. But on entry day, he popped a curb – inflammation in the back of a hock – and the decision was made to stop on him. We the People was sent to Oaklawn Park for the winter and bad weather in January forced him to miss training time and then have his first race delayed. We the People won his debut going a mile on Feb. 12 by 5 3/4 lengths and came back a month later to win a first-level allowance by five. A seventh-place finish in the Arkansas Derby put the Kentucky Derby out of reach. That might have been a blessing, considering We the People likely would have been part of a blistering pace and would not have won. Instead, on May 14 at Belmont, We the People ran in the Grade 3 Peter Pan and dominated by 10 1/4 lengths over a sealed, wet track. “I think he can run on anything,” Brisset said. “We were hoping for him to really show himself a little bit and he did – maybe more than a little bit. Now we have to see what happens Saturday, but I wouldn’t give my position to anybody else.”