NOT ‘ ANOTHER’
Derby winner I’ll Have Another scratched from Belmont
NEW YORK — I’ll Have Another’s bid for the first Triple Crown in 34 years ended shockingly in the barn and not on the racetrack Friday when the colt was scratched the day before the Belmont Stakes and retired with a swollen tendon.
“It’s been an incredible ride, an incredible run,” trainer Doug O’Neill said. “It’s a bummer. It’s not tragic, but it’s a huge disappointment.”
I’ll Have Another, who won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes with stirring stretch drives, was the 4- 5 favorite to win the Belmont today and become the 12th Triple Crown winner and first since 1978.
Instead, he becomes the 12th horse since Affirmed, the last Triple champion, to win the first two legs but not the Belmont.
The scratch marks the first time since Bold Venture in 1936 that the Derby and Preakness winner didn’t run in the Belmont. Burgoo King skipped the race in 1932.
“Could he run and compete? Yes. Would it be in his best interest? No,” O’Neill said.
He said the swollen left front tendon was the beginning of tendinitis, which could have taken six months to treat, and so the popular horse was retired.
“Yesterday he galloped great, but in the afternoon we noticed some loss of definition in his left front leg,” he said, addressing the media outside the Belmont barns while I’ll Have Another grazed nearby. “We did just an easy gallop today. I thought he looked great on the track, and then cooling out, you could tell the swelling was back.”
O’Neill said he conferred with owner J. Paul Reddam and they contacted Dr. Jim Hunt, who examined the horse.
“... Immediately we got Dr. Hunt over here and he scanned him and he said it was the start of tendinitis in his left front tendon and you can give him 3- to- 6 months and start back with him,” O’Neill said. “It was unanimous between the Reddams and my brother and I and everyone at the barn to retire him.”
Reddam confirmed that, saying: “We’re all a bit shocked, but we have to do what’s best for the horse. And if he can’t compete at the top level, he’s done enough.”
After the news conference, O’Neill led I’ll Have Another out of the detention barn and walked him down a path toward the barn where the colt had stayed for most of the time he had been at Belmont. Starting Wednesday, all the Belmont Stakes horses were housed in the same barn; the track said it was a security measure.