Affirmed’s owner finds I’ll Have Another worthy to bear the torch of the Triple Crown
There have been eleven horses, who have won the first two legs of the Triple Crown, since Affirmed won it last in 1978, and some of them did deserve to go all the way and some didn’t, but the cold hard fact remains that the Belmont Stakes was the only race
which stood between the hopeful’s and Triple Crown glory to be glorified for the 12th time in the history of the event.
I’ll Have Another will now be the 12th horse to attempt to sweep the Triple Crown clean with a win in the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes at the Big Sandy on 9 June, 2012, and anyone who saw his two triumphs in the first and the middle jewel,
would gladly put him in the most deserving Triple Crown winners.
Patrice Wolfson, who owned Affirmed with her husband Louis under the banned Harbor View Farm feels the same away about J. Paul Reddam’s I’ll Have Another, who is at the brink of winning the third jewel of the Triple Crown to complete the feat.
Patrice Wolfson, have seen him race, and wants to pass the torch to I’ll Have Another after Affirmed, and she is of the view that the Flower Alley colt will be the one to follow in the footsteps of Affirmed, and it is only right to pass the torch of the
Triple Crown to the Doug O’Neill trained colt.
“There were years I felt it wasn’t the right time to relinquish (the title of ‘last Triple Crown winner’),” Wolfson said on a national teleconference. “But I think the time is right. This little guy ( I’ll Have Another) would be a worthy successor. He’s
very tenacious in the stretch, he strides out beautifully in his gallops, and is a very exciting horse to watch. There’s something about him that reminds me a little of Affirmed, the way he wants to win. I just think it’s time. Racing needs a star and he could
be a star.”
At the age of 18, jockey Steve Cauthen is all praise for Dough O’Neill’s teams and especially with the young jockey, Mario Gutierrez.
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