Despite having the option of drawing a few stalls in, Big Brown will break from post 20 in the Derby because trainer Rick Dutrow — once again — reiterated how he wants him to have a clean run and stay out of trouble should he not break well.

Is anyone else concerned with how often Dutrow has mentioned the prospects of a tardy start by a horse that has not shown that tendency in any of his three races?

Last week, Dutrow said that, “if he breaks clean, I think it’s a mismatch on paper.”

It is possible that Dutrow believes that Big Brown can beat himself should he happen to miss the break — after all, this will be just his fourth career start — and that this is the only way he loses. And he won from post 12 in the Florida Derby, a position no horse had won from since Gulfstream reconfigured.

Yet at 3-1 in the morning-line and the consensus favorite come post time on Saturday, do you worry that Dutrow’s attempt to play it safe and break from the extreme outside has made his colt’s job tougher?

I think so.