Trainer Tony Dutrow joins 2,000-win club
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Tony Dutrow recorded the 2,000th victory of his training career Friday at Belmont Park when Predicted won a maiden $40,000 claiming race.
The road to 2,000 became a slog for Dutrow, who won for the first time since Feb. 17. It was just his third win of the year.
“Finally got there,” Dutrow said afterward. “Looking back on it all, I’ve just had so much fun, so much excitement, so many nice horses, so many great races. It’s just been a wonderful career. There’s another good thing or two coming.”
Dutrow, 64, has trained since 1978. He has been based primarily in New York or the Mid-Atlantic region throughout his career after a brief tenure working as a jockey agent in his native Maryland in the mid-1970s.
Dutrow has won 41 graded stakes, including nine Grade 1 events. His most accomplished horses have included Grace Hall, The Big Beast, Burning Roma, Seattle Smooth, Winslow Homer, and Mo Town. He also trained Havre de Grace, the eventual Horse of the Year of 2011, in 2009-2010 for her first eight starts. His runners have earned more than $75.5 million from 8,337 starts.
Dutrow is the older brother of Rick Dutrow, who on Saturday will saddle his first starter since returning from a 10-year suspension. Rick Dutrow (1,811 wins) is best known for winning the 2005 Breeders’ Cup Classic with Saint Liam and the 2008 Kentucky Derby and Preakness with Big Brown. Both men are the sons of the late Richard “Dickie” Dutrow, a highly successful trainer based in Maryland, then New York, prior to his 1999 death.
“Literally my whole life I’ve loved horses and the horse-racing game,” Tony Dutrow said. “It’s the only thing I ever did, the only thing I ever wanted to do. All I wanted to do was work with the people and the horses and help them be all they can be.”
- additional reporting by Marty McGee
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