Iavarone, Dutrow: Crossed wires again

Controversy is never far away from the Big Brown camp, and it loomed again Saturday in two television interviews that aired on ESPN. IEAH Stables' co-president Michael Iavarone told ESPN's Jeannine Edwards that last month he called trainer Rick Dutrow to tell him he was taking IEAH's horses out of his barn. "I said, 'Rick, I need to come get the horses,' " Iavarone said. Later Saturday, Edwards caught up to Dutrow in Saratoga's paddock before the Whitney Handicap, where Dutrow denied that Iavarone had threatened to remove IEAH's horses from his stable.

Iavarone said "the main investor in our company [James Tagliaferri]" talked him out of it. "It was a done deal," Iavarone said. "But [Tagliaferri] stopped me. He said, 'Take a step back, count to 100, and think of what Rick has done for you and for us."

Winning the Derby and Preakness with an undefeated colt, plus training horses that produced most of IEAH's nation-leading $7.3 million in earnings this year, are pretty impressive achievements, and they were enough to get Dutrow a reprieve. Since being put on "a short leash," in Iavarone's words, Dutrow has won graded stakes with Frost Giant, Kip Deville and Benny the Bull for IEAH.

This latest "he said, he said" controversy came on what should have been a happy day for the embattled crew, because Saturday morning Big Brown worked 6 furlongs in a sharp 1:10.96 at Aqueduct. Dutrow said the colt is "training exceptionally well" for his comeback race, the Grade I Haskell Invitational Sunday at Monmouth Park.

Iavarone had every right to be furious with Dutrow last month. Two days after IEAH announced its horses would run drug-free except for Lasix starting Oct. 1, Kentucky stewards announced that Dutrow faced a 15-day suspension for a clenbuterol overage. "I spoke to him the week before we made the announcement," Iavarone told Edwards, "and he had known since mid-May about the clenbuterol positive."

Dutrow never told Iavarone, who was angry and embarrassed when he learned about the violation through the media. "It undermined what I was trying to put forth," Iavarone said.

In Saturday's ESPN interviews, Iavarone characterized his relationship with Dutrow as "strained." Dutrow disagreed, saying he "didn't know it was strained" and that he thought their problems had been "smoothed over."

Apparently not, and now the flashpoint shifts to the Jersey Shore, where Big Brown will try to redeem himself after his last-place meltdown in the Belmont, where Kent Desormeaux pulled him up at the top of the stretch. "I can't wait for the Haskell," Desormeaux has said. Neither can Dutrow, who said, "I can't wait to get him in the gate again.''

Iavarone also said he expects a 180-degree reversal from a Triple Crown finale he called "a horror show. It was the worst nightmare come true." But in Monday's editions of the New York Times, Iavarone said another failure "could very well be the end of Big Brown's career."

All or nothing at all has been the pattern for Big Brown, who looked like a superstar at Churchill Downs and Pimlico and a crippled giant at Belmont Park. Will it all end Sunday, or will he raise hopes for a triumphant autumn campaign? Whatever you say about the Alpha male of his generation and his connections, they're never boring.

Dutrow is scheduled to be among four horsemen speaking Tuesday on a national teleconference, so more fun could be in store.