Dutrow closing in on 2,000 career victories
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Trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. is closing in on 2,000 career wins. He doesn’t plan a big celebration when he achieves it.
“I’d rather have a nice horse,” Dutrow said Wednesday at his barn at Belmont Park. “Rather than win a bunch of races, I’d rather have a nice horse, they give you a much better feeling and I’m in this game for the feeling. I never got in this game for the money – ever. I do it because I love it and it gives me a good feeling.
“Two thousand? Yeah, it’s good. I hope we can win 2,000 more, but I’d much rather be around a nice horse. As would most people.”
Dutrow, 67, has been around a lot of nice horses in his career, topped by dual-classic winner and champion Big Brown as well as champions Saint Liam and Benny the Bull.
When Dutrow returned from a 10-year suspension handed him by the then New York State Racing Commission for what it deemed a history of violations, he got the chance to train White Abarrio for a year. In 2023, Dutrow won the Grade 1 Whitney and the Breeders’ Cup Classic with White Abarrio, who on Monday was retired from racing following a last-place finish in the Whitney for his regular trainer, Saffie Joseph Jr.
“We had a ball with him, I was glad to be part of his life,” Dutrow said. “Just a real race horse. We had fun with him, we treated him right, we did good. I like those kinds of horses.”
Getting those elite-level horses has not been easy for Dutrow since he returned. He is enjoying a solid season this year, winning at a 24 percent clip, and he has a pair of stakes-winning 3-year-olds in the barn.
Last Sunday, Dutrow won the $400,000 Ellis Park Derby with Igniter, who, earlier in the year, won the Jimmy Winkfield going six furlongs. Dutrow sees steady improvement in the 3-year-old son of Volatile and would like to keep racing him in one-turn, middle-distance races, but those are in short supply.
“I don’t really know what we’re going to do next time, I’m open for suggestions,” Dutrow said. “I see everything that’s available at all the tracks, so I don’t know, but very, very happy with him. He’s got a chance at winning a big race, so I want to give him that chance. I was hoping for a mile and an eighth around one turn with some nice enough horses, but I don’t see it.”
The New York-bred Sculcos Folly had won three stakes for Dutrow this year before finishing second in the New York Derby going two turns at Finger Lakes. Dutrow also is not sure where that horse is going to run next, though he may consider the $500,000 Robert Hilton Memorial, a seven-furlong listed stakes run around two turns on Aug. 28 at Charles Town.
Dutrow plans to make a rare trip to Saratoga on Friday, where all three of his entrants – Into the Light in the first, Toga d’Oro in the fourth, and Languid in the 10th – are all in with a chance.
“Toga hasn’t run at Saratoga, but I think he might like the track maybe a little bit more than Aqueduct, I don’t know, but I’m hoping,” Dutrow said. “Languid ran huge up there on the grass, so I’m very happy with him. [Into the Light] from the rail, he broke from the rail last time going a mile and he showed up and he’s doing good, so I don’t know why he wouldn’t show up again. I’m glad he’s turned the corner and you can count on him now.”
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