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Trainer Doug
O’Neill, rear left, kneels to wrap I’ll Have Another’s left
foot
at Belmont Park on Friday.
Yahoo Sports...
I’ll Have
Another out of Racing
I’ll Have Another is out of the Belmont Stakes, out of the Triple Crown
and retired for good
A leg injury has taken I’ll Have Another out of the Belmont Stakes and
out of the running for the Triple Crown.
The issue is with a swollen left-front tendon. Trainer Doug O’Neill
said something was first noticed in the leg on Thursday, but hoped I’ll
Have Another had “just hit himself.”
I’ll Have Another looked fine during a morning workout on Friday,
according to O’Neill, but in the cooling down period “you could tell
that swelling was back and at that point I didn’t feel very good.”
O’Neill talked to owner Paul Reddam and the two summoned a doctor, who
determined I’ll Have Another showed signs of tendinitis beginning in
his left-front leg.
The doctor indicated the horse would need 3-6 months of rest. After
conferring, O’Neill and Reddam opted to retire I’ll Have Another.
“It’s a bummer,” O’Neill said, “but it’s far from tragic.”
The inflammation to the tendon is a “one-bad-step injury,” according to
equine veterinarian Larry Bramlage, and doesn’t have anything to do
with overuse or I’ll Have Another’s schedule of races.
“In the whole scale of tendon injuries, it’s minor. In the scale of the
Triple Crown, it’s huge,” Bramlage said.
There were indications Friday morning that something was amiss. O’Neill
took I’ll Have Another to the track for his morning jog hours earlier
than he had been going for the past three weeks. O’Neill then left the
Belmont track without speaking to the media, and Reddam was also not
available. That was highly unusual for what had been a media-friendly
group.
“I was watching him this morning,” said trainer Ken McPeek, who has two
horses in Saturday’s race – Unstoppable U and Atigun. “I wanted to see
what his energy level was like, his aura, and the screen [on his stall]
was closed. I thought, ‘What’s that about?’ There was people in there.
It was a little unusual.”
Rumors began to circulate late Friday morning that something was wrong
with the horse, and O’Neill confirmed the shocking news on The Dan
Patrick Show.
“It’s too bad,” McPeek said. “It’s a hard thing. I feel really bad for
the connections. I feel terrible for them.
Saturday’s running of the Belmont Stakes was highly anticipated, as
I’ll Have Another was on the cusp of becoming the first horse since
Affirmed in 1978 to win the Triple Crown. Never a favorite in any of
his previous races, the three-year-old I’ll Have Another was a 4/5
favorite to win the final leg of the horse racing’s most elusive prize.
“Now,” McPeek said of Saturday’s race, “it’s wide open.”
I’ll Have Another is only the third Triple Crown aspirant to miss the
Belmont Stakes due to injury. The others are Bold Venture in 1936 and
Burgoo King in 1932.
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