I’ll Have Another injured, retired

Triple Crown bid for chestnut colt is stunningly over

Associated Press

NEW YORK

The Triple Crown curse lives. This time the horse didn’t even make it to the starting gate.

I’ll Have Another’s bid for the first Triple Crown in 34 years ended stunningly Friday when the chestnut colt was retired on the eve of the Belmont Stakes with an injury to his left front tendon.

“I’m afraid history is going to have to wait for another day,” said J. Paul Reddam, the colt’s owner.

I’ll Have Another, who won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes with stirring stretch drives, was the 4-5 early favorite to win the Belmont and become the 12th Triple Crown winner and first since Affirmed in 1978.

Instead, he’ll make one final trip to the racetrack with his jockey Mario Gutierrez to lead the other Belmont horses during Saturday’s post parade — no longer a prelude to greatness, but merely a wistful farewell.

“He’ll be my hero forever,” a somber Gutierrez said. “What I’ll Have Another did for me is so amazing. He brought happiness to my life.”

Always the longest and toughest of the Triple Crown events, the 11/2-mile Belmont was instantly reduced to being just another big race.

The favorite’s role fell to Dullahan, who ran third in the Derby and had been second in the morning line for the Belmont. He was made the 9-5 early choice.

Trainer Doug O’Neill said I’ll Have Another was being retired because he developed swelling in his left front tendon that was the beginning of tendinitis.

“This is extremely tough for all of us. It’s far from tragic but it’s extremely disappointing,” he said.

O’Neill’s brother, Dennis, said it was hard to tell anything was wrong just by looking at the horse.

“He looks great. He’s sound. He went great this morning. He looks super [but] you just can’t take a chance,” he said. “He’s too valuable of a horse and we love him to death like all of them. You wouldn’t run a horse if you think something might happen.”

The scratch comes a day before an estimated 100,000 fans were expected to converge on the track in hopes of seeing, at long last, a Triple Crown winner.

I’ll Have Another is the 12th horse since 1978 to win the Derby and the Preakness, but unable to complete a Triple Crown sweep in the Belmont, extending the longest gap between Triple winners to 35 years.

The colt also became the third winner of the first two legs who was unable to run in the finale; Burgoo King in 1932 and Bold Venture in 1936 were the others.

Affirmed is the last Triple Crown winner.

“It’s like completely letting the air out of a balloon,” said Ken McPeek, who trains Belmont contenders Atigun and Unstoppable U.

Dale Romans, who trains Dullahan, said: “This was going to be a special race, one of the biggest races of our time. I’d rather have him in there. It would have been something special to beat him.”