I’ll Have Another set to make history in the “Test of the Champion”
The Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes winner, I’ll Have Another, seems to have held up well both physically and mentally after the rigours of his Triple Crown quest so far, and reaching New York three weeks before the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes will give the Flower Alley colt ample time to get used to surroundings and get plenty of rest before the longest of the Triple Crown races at 1 ½ miles.
Rest, is one key element in the Triple Crown races, and for someone like I’ll Have Another it all boils down to his fitness after some gruelling stretch rallies he has had with Baffert’s Bodemeister, but he appears to be fit and not fatigue ridden.
Going back to the Robert B. Lewis Stakes – which I’ll Have Another won – it was decided that colt will not run until the Santa Anita Derby, not because he needed to be fresher for the Santa Anita Derby but keeping in mind Triple Crown as well.
If I’ll Have Another hadn’t done so well, it would have been just a strategy, but now that he is past all expectations, it shaped up to be a brilliant plan, because the colt is so fit that he earned a career best Beyer of 109 in the Preakness Stakes.
“He hadn’t run in five months, so we thought it was smart to wait nine weeks for his second start of the year,” O’Neill said Sunday morning at Pimlico, before I’ll Have Another was sent by van to Belmont Park. “That’s why we’ve been able to succeed, and be where we are.”
Now about the Triple Crown possibility – I’ll Have Another could become the 12th Triple Crown winner after a span of 34 years, or he could be the latest Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes winner after Big Brown in 2008.
Though, going into the “Test of the Champion” trainer Doug O’Neill is confident that I’ll Have Another has what it takes to become the 12th horse to win the Triple Crown.
The one and a half mile test at New York demands stamina, and for his mother’s side he has plenty of stamina, and according to O’Neill he has passed that test already after being a perfect closer.
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