Prado regrets missed shot to ride 'Brown

[a kennedy]

Edgar Prado was supposed to be the one riding overwhelming favorite Big Brown in his quest for the Triple Crown today.

That's what he wanted, and that's what trainer Rick Dutrow wanted.

Instead, Prado will climb aboard Riley Tucker to try for an upset of the Kentucky Derby winner. Asked if the experience would be bittersweet, he said, "Definitely."

An injury cost Prado his chance to ride Big Brown in the horse's debut last September. But Dutrow had his favorite jockey, Prado, aboard the colt for winter workouts in Florida.

"He was great," Prado recalled today. "Everything was so easy. He was beating horses who had already run three or four more races than him."

Just before the colt ran his first race of the year in March, however, Big Brown's owners, IEAH Stables, made the call to switch to Kent Desormeaux. Dutrow didn't argue. He respects Desormeaux and knows that the money men have the final say.

Dutrow said yesterday that he never wanted Prado off the horse. "I think he's the best in the business," he said.

Asked how he felt about the switch, Prado said sarcastically, "I was jumping up and down. I was so happy."

Full article: http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/horseracing/bal-preaknotes517,0,5470865.story

[greenbriar]

1. who was injured? Prado or Big Brown

that would have been cool to see Prado ride Big Brown

he was so devastated about Barbaro

[aaronbees]

2. If I remember right, Prado was injured last year .... eom.