BALTIMORE (AP)

Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown enters today's Preakness after a two-week turnaround, the shortest of his career, with problem front feet and 12 horses eager to show he can be beaten.

None of those factors has dimmed trainer Rick Dutrow Jr's confidence.

"I just can't wait to get over there," he said, nodding toward Pimlico's track. "We're ready to move on, man."

Big Brown delivered on Dutrow's pre-Kentucky Derby boasting with a 4 3/4-length victory nearly two weeks ago. The colt will try to take another step towards history by winning the Preakness - the second leg of the American thoroughbred Triple Crown - in just his fifth career start.

Twenty-one of the last 23 Preakness winners did so off a two-week rest. Big Brown is the early 1-2 favourite. Undefeated Preakness winners Majestic Prince (3-5 in 1969), Seattle Slew (2-5 in 1977) and Smarty Jones (2-5 in 2004) went off at low odds, too.

Dutrow has loudly proclaimed his dislike of the quick turnaround between races. He prefers either short breaks (up to five days) or long ones (up to 40 days) between races.

"But that's just me," he said. "That doesn't mean that Big Brown won't like it. Since he's come out of the Derby up 'til this minute, I'm very happy with the horse. He's just done everything that you would want a horse to do when they're coming out of a race like that - he hasn't missed an oat, he's aggressive with his gallops."

Big Brown stepped on to Pimlico's track for the first time Thursday morning, galloping 2400 metres. He was tracked by dozens of video and still cameras, and a horde of people followed him as he walked out to the track and back to the barn.

The colt never flinched with all the attention. He turned his head toward the sound of clicking cameras and looked around as though he was checking out the new scenery.

"He just does not get excited," Dutrow said. "That's a good thing because you need that kind of mental thing when you go into your races, especially the big races with the big crowds."

Big Brown's record is impressive, but limited. He took five months off after winning his debut race on the turf at Saratoga in September because of problems with vertical cracks in his front hoofs. The so-called quarter cracks can bleed and make a horse lame. Movement and stress on the hooves can spread the crack and prevent it from healing.

Quarter cracks can come from a genetic disposition that causes a thin hoof wall. Like thousands of US thoroughbreds, Big Brown is a descendant of Native Dancer, who had trouble with his feet. Native Dancer lost the 1953 Kentucky Derby by a head, then won the Preakness and Belmont.

Dutrow uses hoof repair ace Ian McKinlay to work on Big Brown's feet. The colt was rocking a new pair of glued-on shoes Thursday afternoon outside his barn, unfazed by McKinlay's handiwork.

Unlike the aluminium plate shoes nailed on most horses, the glue-ons are made of a pliable synthetic rubber. Usually only horses with foot problems wear the US$550 shoes for comfort and protection, and only on their front feet.

Like he did in the Derby, Big Brown will sport bandages on his front legs because his right heel tends to get scraped when he runs.

Of his 12 competitors, only Gayego at 8-1 has odds less than double digits.

"He is the favourite and deserves to be the favourite, but favourites get beat," said Edward Plesa Jr who trains Hey Byrn.

Plesa's colt has won 3-of-4; his only loss was to Big Brown in the Florida Derby.

"We're not here to run for second money, we're here to win the race," Plesa said.