Obviously, it would be exciting to have a Triple Crown winner, but I’m not rooting for Big Brown tomorrow. The connections make it nearly impossible to consider this horse any kind of “feel good” story.

The Trainer: A few years ago, I was getting some pretty good information from a horse racing source in New York on horses that improved form with no rhyme or reason. The commonality in the selections were a pair of trainers, and one of them was Rick Dutrow. It didn’t take a cynic to suspect that pharmacology helped these horses as much as anything else the trainer could do.

Having been suspended at least once a year in every year of his training career, Dutrow’s reputation for dishonesty is well-earned. With drug use by horses having weakened the breed as well as adding an overriding element of uncertainty and dishonesty to the sport, a trainer with the past (even recent past) of Dutrow doesn’t deserve the honor of training the first Triple Crown winner in 30 years.

The Owner: Another New Yorker had alerted me to Big Brown’s dishonorable owner a while back, and the media is finally paying attention. David Evans of Bloomberg did a fine job deconstructing the disreputable history and shady aspirations of Big Brown’s owner Michael Iavarone. Investors in Iavarone’s horsey hedge fund should arrange for their certain-to-follow binding arbitration in advance.

I’d love to see a Triple Crown winner. But it would be desirable to have the connections of that winner not leave a nasty trail of slime in their wake as they enter the Big Sandy winner’s circle following a sweep of the Triple Crown.