BALTIMORE - While the eyes of racing are squarely focused on Big Brown for the 133rd Preakness Stakes on Saturday at Pimlico Race Course, the eyes of the sports world are squarely focused on horse racing.

Two weeks after a Kentucky Derby that revealed the highest of racing highs, and the most gut-wrenching of lows, Derby winner Big Brown will put his unbeaten streak on the line, and attempt to keep his Triple Crown hopes alive, when he faces 12 rivals in the Preakness.

Pimlico is the track where two years ago Barbaro, that year's Derby winner, fractured his right hind leg in the Preakness, beginning an eight-month odyssey that ended with him being euthanized due to complications from the hoof disease laminitis. The death of the filly Eight Belles just moments after her runner-up finish in the Derby two weeks ago at Churchill Downs reopened a debate on many aspects of racing, pitting racing's supporters against those who would like it banned, or at least severely overhauled.

It will be against that backdrop that Big Brown will step onto the track at Pimlico on Saturday, carrying far more than 126 pounds, including jockey Kent Desormeaux. It is not a stretch to say that many in racing will be holding their breath until all 13 runners have successfully completed the 1 3/16 miles and been safely tucked away in their stalls after the race.

Big Brown will be a heavy favorite to pick up the first prize of $600,000 from the $1 million purse. On Thursday his owners, IEAH Stables and Paul Pompa Jr., were reported to be in the final stages of negotiating a lucrative stud deal.

Big Brown has won all four of his starts by a combined 33 3/4 lengths, the smallest margin being the 4 3/4 lengths by which he won the Derby. Of the 19 horses Big Brown faced at Churchill Downs, only one - Gayego, who finished 17th - is here for a rematch. The other 11 Preakness runners all bypassed the Derby.

This will be the first and probably only time that Big Brown, a son of Boundary, will have to race on just two weeks' rest. For Big Brown to lose, he likely will have to regress significantly off his Derby performance, and one of his rivals will have to run the race of his life.

"It's not a party when you have to run back in two weeks," said Richard Dutrow Jr., who trains Big Brown. "You go through a lot to get ready for races like this. But I feel like I have the best horse, the fastest horse, who is proven at the distance. If our horse can get over the two weeks, he's going to be tough to beat."

Big Brown arrived at Pimlico on Wednesday, shortly after 8 p.m., following a flight from Louisville, Ky. He got his first feel of the Pimlico main track about 12 hours later Thursday morning, when he effortlessly galloped 1 3/8 miles with exercise rider Michelle Nevin.

"He was comfortable, cool, and relaxed," Dutrow said Thursday morning. "I'm happy as can be right now.

"I figure the lighter I train him, the better," Dutrow said. "I don't want to squeeze anything out of him. I want to go as slow and easy as I can between races."

Big Brown galloped with bell boots on his front feet to protect hooves that have had quarter cracks. Dutrow said Big Brown would wear the front leg wraps that he had in the Derby in the Preakness, too.

Thursday at noon, Big Brown had new glue-on shoes affixed to his front feet by Ian McKinlay, a noted equine blacksmith.

Dutrow has started to look over the horizon. If Big Brown wins the Preakness, he will head to the June 7 Belmont Stakes in New York with a chance to become the first horse since Affirmed in 1978 to sweep the Triple Crown.

"We've got two more races we have to get through," Dutrow said. "I hope he doesn't have to get on his belly. I want something left for the Belmont.

"In the Belmont, you'll have some fresher, better horses. It'll be his third race in five weeks," Dutrow said. "The Belmont is going to be the one we really have to deal with. The Preakness looks like it's in our favor."

Big Brown landed post 7 in the 13-horse field.

Gayego, who won the Arkansas Derby before his poor try in the Kentucky Derby, returned to California, then shipped here on Wednesday. But that trip is not nearly as bad as what he encountered in the Derby.

"He missed the break," said Paulo Lobo, who trains Gayego. "He got squeezed right after that, then he got rank. Near the wire the first time he clipped heels. After all of that, the race was finished for him."

Kentucky Bear was third in the Blue Grass Stakes in his last start. He entered the Derby, but was not among the top 20 horses in terms of earnings in graded stakes races, so he was one of four excluded from the race. He has trained sensationally in recent weeks, and his trainer, Reade Baker, has seemingly been trying to keep up with Dutrow in the war of words.

"How come he can't bounce now?" Baker said, hoping Big Brown might regress off his Derby effort.

Big Brown "certainly was the best of those horses," Baker said of the Derby, "but that doesn't make him better than anybody else."

Kentucky Bear was seventh in the Fountain of Youth Stakes prior to the Blue Grass.

"He bled and grabbed himself and got bounced around on the first turn," Baker said.

Behindatthebar won the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland in his last start. He is 3 for 4 on synthetic surfaces, but was fifth against a weak field in his lone try on dirt, in the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows.

By contrast, Yankee Bravo turned in one of his best races in his lone try on dirt, when third in the Louisiana Derby. He was fourth in the Santa Anita Derby in his last start.

"He just didn't kick in the last little part," said Paddy Gallagher, who trains Yankee Bravo. "He flattened out. I was a little disappointed. But he still ran a decent race."

Hey Byrn finished 15 3/4 lengths behind Big Brown in the Florida Derby, then won the Holy Bull Stakes. His owner, Bea Oxenberg, was to celebrate her 87th birthday on Friday.

Riley Tucker was third and Racecar Rhapsody fourth in the Lexington.

Macho Again won the Derby Trial in his last start, but was well-beaten in his two previous tries around two turns.

Tres Borrachos was third in the Arkansas Derby, 4 3/4 lengths behind Gayego.

Icabad Crane won the Federico Tesio Stakes here on April 19, making him the only horse in the Preakness with a race, and a win, over this track.

Giant Moon won his first four starts, but has lost two straight, including a fourth-place finish most recently in the Wood Memorial.

Stevil was fourth in the Blue Grass, his fifth straight loss following a debut win against maidens.

The Preakness is the 12th race on a 13-race card that begins at 10:30 a.m. Eastern and is scheduled to end at 7:15 p.m., making it the longest day in American racing. It is the final leg of a $1 million-guaranteed pick four wager. Post time for the Preakness is scheduled for 6:15. It will be televised live by NBC during a two-hour telecast that begins at 4:30.

A crowd of more than 100,000 is expected to stuff itself into Pimlico. They might have to dodge a few raindrops. Thunderstorms and rain were forecast for Friday, according to Weather.com, and there was a 30 percent chance of lingering showers for Saturday, with a high of 73 degrees.

     Rick Dutrow's right-hand woman
By MARTY McGEE, DRF

BALTIMORE - Some people in the horse business are awfully good at what they do but never get lucky enough to be around a great horse.

Michelle Nevin has been lucky and good.

When she was in her mid-teens, growing up in her native Ireland, Nevin regularly exercised a steeplechase horse named Rough Quest. The horse later won the famed Grand National in England in 1996.

Late last November, Nevin was at the Palm Meadows training center in south Florida, helping to get things ready for the winter, when her longtime boss and close friend, trainer Rick Dutrow, called from New York to say he was sending her a horse that might be a superstar. It was Big Brown.

"Rick said, 'Michelle, you're going to absolutely love him,' " recalled Nevin, 30. "When the horse got off the van, he was a good-looking guy, and then the first day I rode him, he had this beautiful stride. He was so cool, so easy. From that day on, I was mad about him."

In the half-year or so that has passed, Nevin has become a critical component in the success of Big Brown, the Dutrow-trained colt who will be heavily favored Saturday in the 133rd Preakness at Pimlico Race Course. Through the winter and early spring at Palm Meadows, and before and after his smashing Kentucky Derby victory on May 3 at Churchill Downs, it has been Nevin, and no one else, who has put the colt through his morning paces as his exercise rider.

Dutrow cannot say enough good things about Nevin.

"She's invaluable," said Dutrow, 48. "On top of the horses, she's excellent. She can tell right away if they're right or not. Off them, she's interested in the legwork, how they eat up, everything about them. She's very well-rounded."

Nevin and Dutrow both say she came to work for the stable when Dutrow's dormant training career was just starting to take off, in about 2001.

"I was in Barn 10 at Aqueduct, and she was working in Barn 11," said Dutrow. "We started dating. We dated for about three or four years, but after a while Michelle decided it wasn't right for her."

Despite the breakup, they have maintained a close relationship, both as friends and business associates. In late March, while Dutrow stayed behind in Florida to keep close tabs on Big Brown preparing for the Florida Derby, he sent Nevin to Dubai to oversee Benny the Bull and Diamond Stripes, both of whom won their respective seven-figure races. Perhaps more notably, Dutrow also entrusted Nevin with the care of his 13-year-old daughter, Molly, on the trip.

"Michelle is close with my whole family," said Dutrow. "With my daughter, my mom [Vicki], my brothers," trainers Tony and Chip Dutrow. "She's like part of the family herself."

Besides exercising horses, Nevin also serves as an assistant trainer, assuming the kind of tasks that Dutrow does not have time for, such as helping to oversee the other personnel in the huge stable.

"Every trainer needs good assistants," said Nevin. "The trainer has a lot of other things to take care of, like dealing with the owners, the condition book, keeping his eyes on the horses themselves. Rick needs to focus on the more important things and not have to worry about the little things."

Nevin's dedication stems from early childhood in County Tipperary, where her grandfather, a trainer, had a horse farm. Her father, Michael Nevin, was a jockey, then a trainer, and when Michelle was about 16, she came to the United States for the first time, working for another Irishman, Leo O'Brien, at Belmont and Saratoga. She went back home to Ireland, graduated school, then came back the following summer, eventually working for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin during a lengthy tenure that included two stints in Dubai.

"I've pretty much been here ever since," she said.

Her parents also moved to the States, with Michael Nevin training in New York with moderate success until retiring in 2004. He and his wife now live on a farm near Versailles, Ky. Michelle has one older sister who still lives in Ireland.

"I still go back every couple years," she said.

Dutrow said he is not as strict as some trainers regarding vacations and the like, and that Nevin can take time off when the situations allow. But at most times of year, with the stable being perpetually involved in major races, Nevin wouldn't think of being anywhere but at the barn, taking care of what needs to be done.

Walter Blum Jr., a well-traveled exercise rider who worked for Dutrow last winter in Florida and has moved with Big Brown to Kentucky and Maryland, has frequently worked alongside Nevin. Post-Derby at Churchill, it was Blum astride the stable pony while Nevin kept Big Brown in a relaxed jog.

"Michelle is one of the best exercise riders in North America," said Blum, the son of a Hall of Fame jockey. "She has great hands and gets along with pretty much every horse she gets on. She can do it all. She's amazing."

Michael Iavarone, whose IEAH Stables bought majority interest in Big Brown after the colt easily won his career debut last September at Saratoga, said this about Nevin: "You can't put into words the quality of her horsemanship, from breezing horses to taking care of them, especially when it comes to Big Brown, Benny the Bull, and Kip Deville. She's so good. Rick's got the utmost confidence in her, and so do we. She's a major reason for every bit of success that the Dutrow barn has had."

"I can honestly say I wouldn't be anywhere close to where I am without Michelle," said Dutrow.

Nevin said she has been "very fortunate" in racing and that the work has its own rewards. "Big Brown, Kip Deville, Benny the Bull, Diamond Stripes, Saint Liam, Sis City," she said, naming some of the Dutrow runners she has helped develop into stars in recent seasons. "It's fun hanging out with the good ones."

The ultimate payoff, she said, came when she saw Big Brown charging down the stretch in the Derby. "Walter and I watched on the racetrack, right near the finish line with the photographers," she said. "When I saw Big Brown all alone, I said, 'We're going to win the Kentucky Derby!' It was really a cool thing."